Global warming is damaging the area extensively, scientists find

Dec 2, 2011 07:44 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday, December 1, saw the release of this year's Arctic Report Card (ARC), which is being developed annually by researchers around the world. The document indicates the North Pole to be entering a warmer period, with changed climate and ice patterns.

The main conclusion is that the Arctic will from now on experience higher air and surface temperatures, which will directly lead to a shift in the way sea ice develops during the northern hemisphere winter.

We can expect to see a lot less ice during the summer months, and also reduced amounts of ice forming during the winter months. This will directly lead to significant changes in oceanic chemistry, as well as to important changes in habitats for species such as polar bears and walruses.

Some 121 researchers from 14 countries collaborated to produce the 2011 Arctic Report Card. The international collaboration is tasked with monitoring how the Arctic changes under the influence of global warming and climate change every year.

For 2011, it was established that average air temperatures near the surface were as much as 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.5° F) higher than the baseline recorded between 1981 and 2010. At the same time, the minimum sea ice extent for this year was the second-lowest since satellite record began, in 1979.

Over most Arctic land masses, vegetation such as tundra continues to increase its range, benefiting from the warmer temperatures that allow it to span even further north. It is entirely possible that most of the northern land masses will be covered in tundra within a few decades.

Moving on to the seas, researchers were able to establish that the Beaufort and Chukchi seas were also suffering extensively from oceanic acidification. The process is caused by the excessive absorption of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere.

“This report, by a team of 121 scientists from around the globe, concludes that the Arctic region continues to warm, with less sea ice and greater green vegetation” researcher Monica Medina explains.

“With a greener and warmer Arctic, more development is likely. Reports like this one help us to prepare for increasing demands on Arctic resources so that better decisions can be made about how to manage and protect these more valuable and increasingly available resources,” she adds.

Medina holds an appointment as the principal deputy undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal agency's Climate Program Office introduced the State of the Arctic Report in 2006.

The document provided a baseline for land, air and sea measurements concerning the Arctic, and is updated annually through the Arctic Report Card.