Arctic marine animals are ecosystem sentinels

Because the Arctic is constantly on the see dramatic declines in periodic ocean ice, warming temps and elevated storminess, the reactions of marine animals can offer clues to the way the ecosystem is reacting to those physical motorists.

Closes, walruses and polar bears depend on periodic ocean ice for habitat and should adjust to the sudden lack of ice, while migratory species for example whales seem to be finding new prey, changing migration timing and moving to new habitats.

"Marine animals can behave as ecosystem sentinels simply because they react to global warming through changes in distribution, timing of the actions and feeding locations," stated Sue Moore, Ph.D., a NOAA oceanographer, who spoke today in the annual meeting from the American Association for that Growth of Science in Chicago. "These lengthy-resided animals also reflect changes towards the ecosystem within their changes in diet, body condition and health.Inch

Moore, who had been a part of a panel of U.S. and Canadian researchers on the healthiness of marine animals and indigenous individuals the Arctic, stressed the significance of integrating marine mammal health research in to the overall climate, weather, oceanographic and social science research on alterations in the Arctic.

"Marine animals connect individuals to ecosystem research by which makes it highly relevant to individuals who reside in the Arctic and rely on these animals for diet and cultural heritage and individuals all over the world who turn to these creatures as indicating the global health," Moore stated.

Cite This Site:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Arctic marine animals are ecosystem sentinels." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 Feb 2014. .National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2014, Feb 13). Arctic marine animals are ecosystem sentinels. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 19, 2014 from world wide web.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140213153534.htmNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Arctic marine animals are ecosystem sentinels." ScienceDaily. world wide web.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140213153534.htm (utilized April 19, 2014).

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Arctic melt season lengthening, sea quickly warming

The size of the melt season for Arctic ocean ice keeps growing by a number of days each decade, as well as an earlier begin to the melt months are permitting the Arctic Sea to soak up enough additional photo voltaic radiation occasionally to melt around four ft from the Arctic ice cap's thickness, according to a different study by National Ice and snow Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA scientists.

Arctic ocean ice has been around sharp decline throughout the final 40 years. The ocean ice cover is diminishing and loss, making researchers think an ice-free Arctic Sea throughout the summer time may be arrived at this century. The seven cheapest September ocean ice extents within the satellite record have happened previously seven years.

"The Arctic is warming which is leading to the melt season to keep going longer,Inch stated Julienne Stroeve, a senior researcher at NSIDC, Boulder and lead author from the new study, that has been recognized for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. "The lengthening from the melt months are permitting for a lot of sun's energy to obtain saved within the sea while increasing ice melt throughout the summer time, overall weakening the ocean ice cover."

To review the evolution of ocean ice melt onset and freeze-up dates from 1979 to the current day, Stroeve's team used passive microwave data from NASA's Nimbus-7 Checking Multichannel Microwave Radiometer, and also the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager and also the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder transported onboard Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft.

When snow and ice start to melt, the existence of water causes spikes within the microwave radiation the snow grains emit, which these sensors can identify. When the melt months are entirely pressure, the microwave emissivity from the snow and ice balances, also it does not change again before the start of the freezing season causes another group of spikes. Researchers can appraise the alterations in the ice's microwave emissivity utilizing a formula produced by Thorsten Markus, co-author from the paper and chief from the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Results reveal that even though the melt months are lengthening at both finishes, by having an earlier melt onset early in the year along with a later freeze-in the autumn, the predominant phenomenon stretching the melting may be the later start of freeze season. Some areas, like the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, are freezing between six and 11 days later per decade. But while melt onset versions are more compact, the timing of the start of the melt season includes a bigger effect on the quantity of photo voltaic radiation absorbed through the sea, because its timing coincides with once the sun is greater and better within the Arctic sky.

Despite large regional versions at first and finish from the melt season, the Arctic melt season has extended normally by 5 days per decade from 1979 to 2013.

Still, weather helps make the timing from the fall freeze-up vary so much from year upon year.

"There's a trend later on freeze-up, but we can not tell whether a specific year will have an early on or later freeze-up," Stroeve stated. "There remains lots of variability from year upon year regarding the exact timing of once the ice will reform, which makes it hard for industry to organize when you should stop procedures within the Arctic."

To determine alterations in the quantity of solar power absorbed through the ice and sea, the scientists checked out the evolution of ocean surface temps and analyzed monthly surface albedo data (the quantity of solar power reflected through the ice and also the sea) along with the incoming photo voltaic radiation for that several weeks of May through October. The albedo and ocean surface temperature data the scientists used originates from the nation's Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's polar-revolving about satellites.

They discovered that the ice pack and sea waters are absorbing increasingly more sunlight due both for an earlier opening from the waters along with a darkening from the ocean ice. The ocean ice cover has become less reflective since it now mostly includes thinner, more youthful ice, that is less reflective compared to older ice that formerly centered the ice pack. Also, the youthful ice is flatter, permitting the dark melt ponds that form in the initial phases from the melt season can spread more broadly, further lowering its albedo.

The scientists calculated the rise in photo voltaic radiation absorbed through the ice and sea for that period varying from 2007 to 2011, which in certain regions of the Arctic Sea exceed 300 to 400 megajoules per square meter, or the quantity of energy required to thin the ice by yet another 3.1 to 4.2 ft (97 to 130 centimeters).

The increases in surface sea temps, coupled with a warming Arctic atmosphere because of global warming, explain the postponed freeze in the autumn.

"If air and sea temps offer a similar experience, the sea won't lose warmth towards the atmosphere as quickly as it might once the variations are greater," stated Linette Boisvert, co-author from the paper along with a cryospheric researcher at Goddard. "Within the last years, top of the sea warmth submissions are much greater than it was once, so it takes a longer period to awesome off as well as for freeze as much as begin."

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Periodic Arctic summer time ice extent still difficult to forecast, study states

Will next year's summer time Arctic ice extent be low or high? Can ship captains intend on moving the famous Northwest Passage -- an immediate shipping route from Europe to Asia over the Arctic Sea -- to reduce some time and fuel? New research states year-to-year predictions from the Arctic's summer time ice extent are not reliable.

Researchers in the National Ice and snow Data Center (NSIDC), College College London, College of Nh and College of Washington examined 300 summer time Arctic ocean ice predictions from 2008 to 2013 and located that predictions are very accurate when ocean ice the weather is near to the downward trend that's been noticed in Arctic ocean ice during the last 3 decades. However, predictions aren't so accurate when ocean ice the weather is abnormally greater or lower in comparison for this trend.

"We discovered that in a long time once the ocean ice extent departed strongly in the trend, such as with 2012 and 2013, forecasts unsuccessful no matter the technique accustomed to forecast the September ocean ice extent," stated Julienne Stroeve, a senior researcher at NSIDC and professor at College of school London. Stroeve is lead author from the study, released lately in Geophysical Research Letters.

"That downward trend reflects Arctic global warming, but what causes yearly versions round the trend are not as easy to pin lower," stated Lawrence Hamilton, co-author along with a investigator in the College of Nh. "This assortment of predictions from a variety of sources highlights where they are doing well, where more jobs are needed."

Arctic ocean ice cover develops each winter as sunset for many several weeks, and reduces each summer time because the sun increases greater within the northern sky. Every year, the Arctic ocean ice reaches its minimum extent in September. Researchers consider Arctic ocean ice like a sensitive climate indicator and track this minimum extent each year to ascertain if any trends emerge.

Multi-funnel passive microwave satellite instruments happen to be monitoring ocean ice extent since 1979. Based on the data, September ocean ice extent from 1979 to 2013 has rejected 13.7 percent per decade. The current years have proven a much more dramatic decrease in Arctic ice. In September 2012, Arctic ocean ice arrived at an archive minimum: 16 percent less than any previous September since 1979, and 45 percent less than the typical ice extent from 1981 to 2010.

Lengthy-term forecasts of summer time Arctic extent produced by global climate models (GCMs) claim that the downward trend will probably result in an ice-free Arctic summer time in the center of a lifetime. GCMs have been in overall agreement on lack of Arctic summer time ocean ice consequently of anticipated warming from the increase in green house gases this century.

Shorter-term predictions of summer time ice extent are not as easy to create but have reached popular. The diminishing ice has caught the interest of seaside towns within the Arctic and industries thinking about removing assets as well as in a shorter shipping route between Asia and europe.

Most of the predictions examined within the study centered on the condition from the ice cover just before the summer time melt season. Based on the study, including ocean ice thickness and concentration could enhance the periodic predictions.

"It might be also easy to predict ocean ice cover annually ahead of time rich in-quality findings of ocean ice thickness and snow cover within the whole Arctic," stated Cecilia Bitz, co-author and professor of atmospheric sciences in the College of Washington.

"Temporary forecasts are achievable, but challenges stay in predicting anomalous years, and there's an excuse for better data for initialization of forecast models," Stroeve stated. "Obviously there's always the problem that people cannot predict the elements, and summer time weather designs remain important."

The research examined predictions from study regarding Environment Arctic Change (SEARCH) Ocean Ice Outlook, a task that gathers and summarizes ocean ice predictions produced by ocean ice scientists and conjecture centers. Contributing factors towards the SEARCH Ocean Ice Outlook project employ a number of strategies to forecast the September ocean ice extent, varying from heuristic, to record, to stylish modeling approaches.

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Arctic cyclones more prevalent than formerly thought

From 2000 to 2010, about 1,900 cyclones churned across the top world every year, departing tepid to warm water and air within their wakes -- and melting ocean ice within the Arctic Sea.

That's about 40 % greater than formerly thought, according to a different analysis of those Arctic storms.

A 40 % improvement in the amount of cyclones might be vital that you anybody who lives north of 55 levels latitude -- the part of the study, including the northern reaches of Canada, Scandinavia and Russia, together with the condition of Alaska.

The finding can also be vital that you scientists who wish to obtain a obvious picture of current weather designs, along with a better knowledge of potential global warming later on, described David Bromwich, professor of geography in the Ohio Condition College and senior research researcher in the Byrd Polar Research Center.

The research was presented on 12 ,. 12 in the American Geophysical Union meeting, inside a poster co-written by his co-workers Natalia Tilinina and Sergey Gulev from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow Condition College.

"Now that we know there have been more cyclones than formerly thought, due to the fact we have become better at discovering them," Bromwich stated.

Cyclones are zones of low atmospheric pressure which have wind circulating around them. They are able to form over land or water, and pass different names based on their size where they're situated. In Columbus, Ohio, for example, a minimal-pressure system in December would just be known as a winter storm. Extreme low-pressure systems created within the tropical waters could be known as severe weather or typhoons.

How could anybody miss bad weather as large like a cyclone? You may think they are simple to identify, but because it works out, most of the cyclones which were skipped were small in dimensions and short in duration, or happened in unpopulated areas. Yet scientists have to know about all of the storms which have happened if they're to obtain a truth of storm trends in the area.

"We can not yet know if the amount of cyclones is growing or lowering, because that will have a multidecade view. We all do realize that, since 2000, there has been lots of rapid alterations in the Arctic -- Greenland ice melting, tundra thawing -- therefore we can tell that we are taking a great look at what is happening within the Arctic throughout the present duration of rapid changes," Bromwich stated.

Bromwich leads the Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) collaboration, which utilizes statistics and computer calculations to mix and re-examine diverse causes of historic weather information, for example satellite imagery, weather balloons, buoys and weather stations on the floor.

"There's really a lot information, it's difficult to be aware what related to everything. Each bit of information informs another area of the story -- temperature, air pressure, wind, precipitation -- so we attempt to take many of these data and blend them together inside a coherent way," Bromwich stated.

The particular computations happen in the Ohio Supercomputer Center, and also the combined ASR data are created openly open to researchers.

Two such researchers are cyclone experts Tilinina and Gulev, who labored with Bromwich to search for proof of telltale alterations in wind direction and air pressure within the ASR data. They in comparison the outcomes to 3 other data re-analysis groups, which mix global weather data.

"We discovered that ASR provides new vision from the cyclone activity in high latitudes, showing the Arctic is a lot more densely populated with cyclones than was recommended through the global re-analyses," Tilinina stated.

One global data set employed for comparison was ERA-Interim, that is produced through the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Predictions. Concentrating on ERA-Interim data for latitudes north of 55 levels, Tilinina and Gulev recognized greater than 1,200 cyclones each year between 2000 and 2010. For the similar period of time, ASR data produced greater than 1,900 cyclones each year.

Once they simplified their search to cyclones that happened directly within the Arctic Sea, they found greater than 200 each year in ERA-Interim, along with a little over 300 each year in ASR.

There is good agreement between all of the data sets if this found large cyclones, the scientists found, however the Arctic-centered ASR made an appearance to trap more compact, shorter-resided cyclones that steered clear of recognition within the bigger, global data sets. The ASR data also provided more detail around the greatest cyclones, taking the start of the storms earlier and monitoring their decay longer.

Extreme Arctic cyclones have special concern to climate researchers simply because they melt ocean ice, Bromwich stated.

"Whenever a cyclone covers water, it mixes water up. Within the tropical latitudes, surface water is warm, and severe weather churn cold water in the deep as much as the top. Within the Arctic, it is the complete opposite: there's warmer water below, and also the cyclone churns that tepid to warm water as much as the top, therefore the ice touches."

For example, he reported the especially large cyclone that hit the Arctic in August 2012, which researchers believe performed a substantial role within the record retreat of ocean ice that year.

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Thin, low Arctic clouds played an important role in the massive 2012 Greenland ice melt

April 3, 2013

The ICECAPS Mobile Science Facility at Summit Station against a backdrop of Arctic clouds. ICECAPS is short for Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state and Precipitation.

Download here (Credit: CIRES/University of Colorado )

Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. The study, published today in Nature, found that thin, low-lying clouds allowed the sun’s energy to pass through and warm the surface of the ice, while at the same time trapping heat near the surface of the ice cap. This combination played a significant role in last summer's record-breaking melt.

“Thicker cloud conditions would not have led to the same amount of surface warming,” said Matthew Shupe, research meteorologist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado and the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. “To understand the region’s future, you’ll need to understand its clouds. Our finding has implications for the fate of ice throughout the Arctic.”

Scientists around the world are trying to understand how quickly Greenland is warming because ice melt there contributes to sea level rise globally. The Greenland Ice Sheet is second only to Antarctica in ice volume. In July, more than 97 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet surface experienced some degree of melting, including at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station, high atop the ice sheet. According to ice core records, the last time the surface at Summit experienced any degree of melting was in 1889, but it is not known whether this extended across the entire ice sheet.

To investigate whether clouds contributed to, or counteracted, the surface warming that melted the ice, the authors modeled the near-surface conditions. The model was based on observations from a suite of sophisticated atmospheric sensors operated as part of a study called the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric State and Precipitation at Summit.

“The July 2012 ice melt was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air sweeping in from North America, but that was only one factor,” said David Turner, research meteorologist with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and one of the lead investigators. “In our paper, we show that low-lying clouds containing a low amount of condensed water were instrumental in pushing surface air temperatures up above freezing and causing the surface ice to melt.”

Clouds can cool the surface by reflecting solar energy back into space, and can warm it by radiating heat energy back down to the surface. The balance of those two processes depends on many factors, including wind speed, turbulence, humidity and cloud “thickness,” or liquid water content.

In certain conditions, these clouds can be thin enough to allow some solar radiation to pass through, while still “trapping” infrared radiation at ground level. That is exactly what happened last July: the clouds were just right for maximum surface warming. Thicker clouds would have reflected away more solar radiation; thinner ones couldn’t have trapped as much heat, and in either of those cases, there would have been less surface warming.

The researchers also found these thin, low-lying liquid clouds occur 30 to 50 percent of the time in summer, both over Greenland and across the Arctic. Current climate models tend to underestimate their occurrence in the Arctic, which limits those models’ ability to predict how clouds and their warming or cooling effects may respond to climate change.

“The cloud properties and atmospheric processes observed with the Summit Station instrument array provide a unique dataset to answer the large range of scientific questions we want to address,” said Turner. “Clouds play a big role in the surface mass and energy budgets over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Melting of the world’s major ice sheets can significantly impact human and environmental conditions via its contribution to sea-level rise.”

Better understanding of clouds also improves climate models.

“Our results may help to explain some of the difficulties that current global climate models have in simulating the Arctic surface energy budget, including the contributions of clouds,” said Ralf Bennartz, lead author for the study and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Above all, this study highlights the importance of continuous and detailed ground-based observations over the Greenland Ice Sheet and elsewhere. Only such detailed observations will lead to a better understanding of the processes that drive Arctic climate.”

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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Coast Survey plans for new Arctic nautical charts

February 26, 2013

NOAA's planned charts of the Arctic.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has issued an updated Arctic Nautical Charting Plan, as a major effort to improve inadequate chart coverage for Arctic areas experiencing increasing vessel traffic due to ice diminishment.

The update came after consultations with maritime interests and the public, as well as with other federal, state, and local agencies.

“As multi-year sea ice continues to disappear, vessel traffic in the Arctic is on the rise,” said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, NOAA Coast Survey director. “This is leading to new maritime concerns about adequate charts, especially in areas increasingly transited by the offshore oil and gas industry and cruise liners.”

“Given the lack of emergency response infrastructure in remote Arctic waters, nautical charts are even more important to protect lives and fragile coastal areas,” Glang said.

Commercial vessels depend on NOAA to provide charts and publications with the latest depth information, aids to navigation, accurate shorelines, and other features required for safe navigation in U.S. waters. But many regions of Alaska’s coastal areas have never had full bottom bathymetric surveys, and some haven’t had more than superficial depth measurements since Captain Cook explored the northern regions in the late 1700s.

“Ships need updated charts with precise and accurate measurements,” said Capt. Doug Baird, chief of Coast Survey’s marine chart division. “We don’t have decades to get it done. Ice diminishment is here now.”

Two NOAA Corps Officers from NOAA Ship Fairweather in the Arctic in 2012 .(Credit: NOAA)

NOAA plans to create 14 new charts to complement the existing chart coverage. For example, seven of the charts will complete chart coverage from the Alaska Peninsula to Cape Lisburne at the edge of the North Slope, and more charts support the future maritime transportation infrastructure in the coastal areas north of the Aleutian Islands. 

NOAA has been taking stakeholder feedback since the first Arctic Charting Plan was issued in 2011. One improvement called for additional detail to the Kotzebue Harbor and Approaches chart, which was published as the first plan-inspired new chart, in April 2012.

Mariners and the interested public can submit comments through the Coast Survey Inquiry and Discrepancy System online.

These latest efforts also support the objectives of the National Ocean Policy that foster understanding of changing conditions in the Arctic, and focus on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observations, mapping, and infrastructure by strengthening mapping capabilities into a national system and integrating that system into international observation efforts.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is the nation’s nautical chartmaker. Originally formed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807, Coast Survey updates charts, surveys the coastal seafloor, responds to maritime emergencies, and searches for underwater obstructions that pose a danger to navigation. Follow Coast Survey on Twitter @nauticalcharts, and check out the NOAA Coast Survey blog at http://noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com for more in-depth coverage of surveying and charting.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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