Arctic now a greener, warmer, less icy region: 2011 Arctic Report Card

Is this the Arctic of the future? The 2011 Arctic Report Card notes a greening and warming of the Arctic, as reflected in this photo of lakes caused by permafrost melt. (FILE PHOTO)

The Arctic has settled into new phase – warmer, greener, and with less ice, the 2011 United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Arctic Report Card” said Dec. 1.

Changes to the Arctic are chronicled annually in the Arctic Report Card, prepared by an international team of scientists from 14 different countries.

In 2011 they say the Arctic is entering a new state – one with warmer air and water temperatures, less summer sea ice and snow cover, and a changed ocean chemistry.

This shift is also causing changes in the region’s life, both on land and in the sea, they conclude.

“With a greener and warmer Arctic, more development is likely,” said Monica Medina, an official U.S. government spokesperson for NOAA. “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.”

The report card tracks the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, biology, ocean, land, and Greenland. This year, new sections were added, including, greenhouse gases, ozone and ultraviolet radiation, ocean acidification, Arctic Ocean productivity, and lake ice.

Among the 2011 highlights are:

• atmosphere: in 2011, the average annual near-surface air temperatures over much of the Arctic Ocean were approximately 1.5 C greater than the 1981-2010 period;

• ozone concentrations in the Arctic stratosphere during March 2011 were the lowest ever recorded since 1979; they were six per cent below the previous record-low observed in 2000;

• sea ice: minimum Arctic sea ice area in September 2011 was the second lowest recorded by satellite since 1979;

• lake ice: cover duration was shorter by as much as four to five weeks in 2010-2011 compared to the 1997-2010 average for the Eastern Arctic;

• ice shelves: the recent series of warm summers in Canada’s Arctic has been associated with continued break-up of the floating ice shelves that fringe northern Ellesmere Island. They are now 54 per cent of their 2005 total area;

• ocean: Arctic Ocean temperature and salinity may be stabilizing after a period of warming and freshening. Acidification of sea water has been documented in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas;

• land: Arctic tundra vegetation continues to increase and is associated with higher air temperatures over most of the Arctic lands; and,

• sea life: thousands of walruses had hauled out on the northwest coast of Alaska by mid-August 2011, the fourth time in the past five years for a behavior thought to be triggered by a lack of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea. These haul-outs result in pup mortality by crushing and see walrus moving to shore to forage.

To view the Arctic Report Card, visit the NOAA website here.