Arctic Sea Ice Disappearance Spurs Northern Greening

As our climate warms and sea ice declines, the Arctic is receiving a bit of a makeover. Scientists have discovered that warming trends are changing the vegetation in nearby coastal areas, essentially greening the Arctic.

In order to see how melting sea ice might be affecting the surrounding areas, the scientists reviewed research on the response of plants, marine life and animals to declining sea ice in the Arctic. The close, comprehensive study analyzed 10 years-worth of data and research on the subject.

"Our thought was to see if sea ice decline contributed to greening of the tundra along the coastal areas," said Uma Bhatt, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's a relatively new idea."

It turns out that sea ice loss is changing marine and terrestrial food chains. More specifically, the disappearing ice means a loss of sea ice algae, which is the basis of the marine food web. They also found that larger plankton is thriving and is replacing smaller, but more nutrient dense plankton.

In addition, the scientists found that sea ice has destroyed old pathways of animal migration while opening new ways for marine animals. Some plants and animals are becoming more isolated and in the farthest reaches of the Arctic, entire biomes may be lost without the cooling effects of summer sea ice.

Yet this disappearing ice will also have an effect on the surrounding vegetation. The warming soils will provide plants with the opportunity to grow in areas that they haven't been able to colonize previously. This, in turn, will lead to a greening of the Arctic as vegetation abundance increases. While Arctic areas are greening, though, there are some areas in northern Russia and along the Bering Sea coast of Alaska are showing recent cooling trends and declines in vegetation productivity.

The findings reveal a little bit more about what sort of changes we might expect in the future as our climate continues to warm. In addition, it shows what areas we might be able to target for conservation as animals and plants are put at risk.

The review appeared in a recent edition of Science magazine.