NOAA today announced the release of the agency’s 14th annual Arctic Report Card, which finds that Arctic ecosystems and communities “are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice.”
The report card addresses areas including surface air and sea surface temperature, terrestrial snow cover, Greenland ice sheet, sea ice, Arctic ocean primary productivity, tundra greenness, permafrost and global carbon cycle, ivory gull, near-bottom fish densities in Bering and Barents Seas, and recent warming in the Bering Sea.
NOAA Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Timothy Gallaudet said that “[t]he speed and trajectory of the changes sweeping the Arctic, many occurring faster than anticipated, makes NOAA’s continued investment in Arctic research and activities all the more important,” adding that “[w]e need the best scientific information to support NOAA’s efforts to better understand how environmental change is affecting the Arctic and weather around the globe, to support adaptation and economic opportunities in the region, and to sustain our ocean-based Blue Economy.”
