Arctic Report Card 2015
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Report Card 2015
Photos and Animations for 2015 Report Card
Scenery (also see photos used in video, below) Arctic snow melt June 28, 2014, Central Arctic Management Area (collection)Photos by Bob Wick, Wilderness Specialist for the BLM’s National Conservation Lands Arctic snow covered tundra in winter, January 19, 2014Credit: John Winkelman Alaska National Guard fights Alaska wildfires, June 26, 2015Credit: Sherman Hogue Smoke from fire
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2015 Headlines
Maximum sea ice extent on 25 February was 15 days earlier than average and the lowest value on record (1979-present). Minimum ice extent in September was the 4th lowest on record. Sea ice continues to be younger and thinner: in February and March 2015 there was twice as much first-year ice as there was 30 years ago.
Executive Summary
The Arctic Report Card (www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/) considers a range of environmental observations throughout the Arctic, and is updated annually. As in previous years, the 2014 update to the Arctic Report Card describes the current state of different physical and biological components of the Arctic environmental system and illustrates that change continues to occur throughout the system.
Arctic Report Card 2015
Archive of the entire Arctic Report Card 2015 website
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Surface Air Temperature
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). Here we report on the spatial and temporal variability of Arctic air temperatures during the period October 2014 through September 2015, the 12-month period since the end of the previous reporting period (Overland et al. 2014).
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Climate Change is Pushing Boreal Fish Northwards to the Arctic: The Case of the Barents Sea
The biological impacts of climate change include shifts in population range and distributions, typically poleward (Doney et al. 2012, IPCC 2014). The pace of shifting populations reflects local climate velocities (Pinsky et al. 2013). In the Arctic…
River Discharge
River discharge integrates hydrologic processes occurring throughout the surrounding landscape; consequently, changes in the discharge of large rivers can be a sensitive indicator of widespread changes in watersheds (Rawlins et al. 2010, Holmes et al. 2012).
Terrestrial Snow Cover
The Arctic (land areas north of 60°N) is always completely snow covered in winter, so it is the transition seasons of fall and spring that are significant when characterizing variability and change…
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