Researchers are seeing melting glaciers and declining sea ice in the Arctic. Getty Photo.
Some scientists believe the best adjective to characterize the Arctic is “unravelling”!
According to some data, the region is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the Earth’s regions according to findings by a team comprised of over 90 researchers. Declining sea ice and receding glaciers have been noted consistently over the last decade and the team has confirmed the continuation of these processes.
Warming in the Arctic has increased more rapidly between 2011 and 2015 since 1900 when the first climate records were registered. Snow cover in the region has also decreased by 50% further confirming the rise in temperatures over the years.
A major resulting affect from the warming will be global sea levels rising faster than predicted. Estimates of 2013 by an intergovernmental panel estimate levels rising twice as much as previously thought.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, in their most recent publication of Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic report the findings in line with what the scientists are finding all across the Arctic.
“The Arctic that you will have by mid-century will be very different from the Arctic that we see today,” said Morten Skovgård Olsen, who coordinated the research.
A recent project monitoring polar bears will help scientists better understand patterns of energy use in a warming Arctic. The project partners included Polar Bears International, USGS, explore.org, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, York University, San Diego Institute for Conservation Research, Exeye (camera inventor) and Arctic Bear Productions.
Scientists in April placed cameras on four females roaming Beaufort Sea ice north of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.
The cameras are part of a study led by research biologist Anthony Pagano to understand how polar bears respond to loss of sea ice from climate warming.
The clip shows a bear entering the icy ocean waters, trying to eat a frozen seal and interacting with a male.
Pagano says in a release the information will help scientists understand the bears’ nutritional demands and energy expenditure in the context of less sea ice.
