Arctic air temperatures are both an indicator and a driver of regional and global changes. Although there are year-to-year and regional differences in air temperatures due to natural random variability, the magnitude and Arctic-wide character of the long-term temperature increase is a major indicator of global warming (Overland 2009)…
Surface Air Temperature Read More »
Sea ice extent is the primary descriptor of the state of the Arctic sea ice cover. Satellite-based passive microwave instruments have been used to determine sea ice extent since 1979…
Summer sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Arctic Ocean are set by absorption of solar radiation into the surface layer. In the Barents and Chukchi seas, there is an additional contribution from advection of warm water from the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans, respectively. Solar warming of the ocean surface layer is influenced by the distribution of sea ice (with more solar warming in ice-free regions), and by cloud cover, water color and upper-ocean stratification…
Sea Surface Temperature Read More »
Primary productivity is the rate at which atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide is converted by autotrophs (primary producers) to organic material. It occurs most commonly by photosynthesis (i.e., with light as an energy source) but it is also facilitated by chemosynthesis (i.e., using oxidation of methane or other reduced inorganic molecules as an energy source instead of light).
Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity Read More »
Until recently, the above-ground biomass of Arctic tundra vegetation had been increasing, i.e., vegetation has been “greening”, for at least the past three decades (Bhatt et al. 2013, Frost and Epstein 2014)…
