Science Daily April 2, 2019
The dramatic loss of ice in the Arctic is influencing sea-ice transport across the Arctic Ocean. Researchers in Germany report that today only 20 percent of the sea ice that forms in the shallow Russian marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean actually reaches the Central Arctic, where it joins the Transpolar Drift; the remaining 80 percent of the young ice melts before it has a chance to leave its ‘nursery’. Before 2000, that number was only 50 percent. This trend has been confirmed by the outcomes of sea-ice thickness measurements taken in the Fram Strait. The ice now leaving the Arctic through the Fram Strait is, on average, 30 percent thinner than it was 15 years ago. According to the researchers, this development not only takes us one step closer to an ice-free summer in the Arctic but also the sea ice dwindles and the Arctic Ocean stands to lose an important means of transporting nutrients, algae and sediments…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
In winter, the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea constantly produce new sea ice. Credit: Image courtesy of Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research