The Arctic Report Card (hereafter 'ARC') has been issued annually since 2006. It is a timely and peer-reviewed source for clear, reliable and concise environmental information on the current state of different components of the Arctic environmental system relative to historical records. The ARC is intended for a wide audience, including scientists, teachers, students, decision-makers, policy-makers, and the general public, interested in the Arctic environment and science.
ARC 2019 contains 12 essay contributions prepared by an international team of 81 researchers from 12 different countries. As in previous years, independent peer review of ARC 2019 was organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the Arctic Council.
ARC 2019 is organized into three sections: Vital Signs, Other Indicators, and Frostbites. The Vital Signs section is for annual updates on seven recurring topics: Surface Air Temperature; Terrestrial Snow Cover; Greenland Ice Sheet; Sea Ice; Sea Surface Temperature; Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity; and Tundra Greenness. The Other Indicators section is for topics that will be updated every 2-4 years, many of which have appeared in previous ARCs (e.g., Fish & Fisheries, Migratory Birds, Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, to name a few). The Frostbites section is for reports on new and newsworthy items, describing emerging issues, and addressing topics that relate to long-term scientific observations in the Arctic. ARC2019 offers a specific focus on the Bering Sea region, which is currently experiencing dramatic changes in the marine ecosystem. Contributing to this focus is the addition of an important perspective to ARC2019—the voices of Indigenous Peoples from the Bering Sea region.
People occasionally ask questions such as "How are essay topics selected?" or "Why is topic X not in the Arctic Report Card?" The short answer is that each ARC strives to include some recurrent topics as well as new topics, and thus covers many subjects over a period of years. In this way the ARC achieves a comprehensiveness over time that is not possible in any given year, especially considering the significant time constraints in its production schedule. A complete list of topics covered since the first publication of the ARC is available at Previous Report Cards. Click on these hyperlinks for a list of all ARC 2019 authors and their affiliations, and a list of references for all 12 essays.
Acknowledgments
Financial support for Arctic Report Card 2019 was provided by NOAA's Ocean Observation and Monitoring Division Arctic Research Program, including content editing through the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) via NOAA Cooperative Agreement # NA16NOS0120027 (Richter-Menge) and through the University Consortium for Atmospheric Research (Druckenmiller). Additional editor support was provided by the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) via a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs (Award #1331100) (Druckenmiller). In kind support was provided by the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory of the Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Jeffries). The editors thank AMAP for organizing the independent peer review and those who provided review comments.
How to Cite Arctic Report Card 2019
Citing the complete report:
Richter-Menge, J., M. L. Druckenmiller, and M. Jeffries, Eds., 2019: Arctic Report Card 2019, https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card.
Citing an essay (example):
Frey, K. E., J. C. Comiso, L. W. Cooper, J. M. Grebmeier, and L. V. Stock, 2019: Arctic Ocean primary productivity: The response of marine algae to climate warming and sea ice decline. Arctic Report Card 2019, J. Richter-Menge, M. L. Druckenmiller, and M. Jeffries, Eds., https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card.
Media Contact Information
Theo Stein
NOAA Communications
theo.stein@noaa.gov
(303) 819-7409
Banner Photograph
The Iñupiat community of Wales, Alaska—home to the Kiŋikmiut People (credit: M. L. Druckenmiller)
November 26, 2019