SciencePoles news
Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.
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Marine Mammals Face Increased Risk from Arctic Shipping, Say WCS and Alaska Native Groups
23.03.2012
According to conclusions from a workshop involving Alaska Native groups and the Wildlife Conservation Society, a rapid increase in shipping in the Arctic significantly increases risk posed to marine mammals and the local communities that rely on them. The workshop, held in Anchorage, Alaska 12-14 March, looked at potential impacts…
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NASA’s Operation IceBridge 2012 Arctic Season Underway
20.03.2012
NASA’s Operation IceBridge to measure sea and land ice at the Poles began its mission for the 2012 Arctic season on 13 March. From now until May, a modified P-3 aircraft will fly daily missions out of Thule and Kangerlussaq in Greenland and will also make a trip to Fairbanks,…
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Study Indicates Greenland Ice Sheet Could Melt Completely with 1.6°C of Warming
12.03.2012
Researchers from the Potsdam Institute of for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid suggest that the Greenland Ice Sheet might be more vulnerable to climate warming that previously believed.
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Sea Ice Extent Low in Barents Sea and High in Bering Sea, according to NSIDC
12.03.2012
Continuing the trend from January 2012, Arctic sea ice extent was low on the Atlantic side of the Arctic and high on the Pacific side during February 2012, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. Temperatures in the Barents, Laptev and Kara Seas in…
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Understanding Longevity of Baydjarakh in Arctic Permafrost
06.03.2012
Polygonal peat plateaus known as baydjarakh, which form through the partial degradation of permafrost, have been stable features of the landscape in Arctic coastal areas for as long as hundreds of thousands of years. However understanding the mechanisms behind their continued longevity, especially as the climate warms, has remained a…
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Multi-Year Sea Ice Loss in Arctic Leading to Increase in Mercury Pollution
05.03.2012
A recent NASA-led study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres has shown that declining multi-year sea ice cover in the Arctic over the past few decades has been intensifying a chemical reaction that ultimately results in greater deposits of toxic mercury in the Arctic.
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NASA Study Finds Old Arctic Ice Vanishing Rapidly
02.03.2012
A new NASA study has found that the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic appears to be vanishing faster than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean.
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Dwindling Sea Ice in Arctic Contributes to Snowy Winters in Northern Hemisphere
29.02.2012
A study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Columbia University provides further evidence of a link between melting sea ice in the Arctic and outbreaks of cold, snowy weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
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Life in Arctic Waters Persists Even in Winter
24.02.2012
According to preliminary results from research funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), life in the icy waters off the Alaskan coast does not stop completely in winter for microscopic organisms at the base of the food chain, despite cold and dark conditions. This research is particularly interesting as…
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Scientists Revive 32,000 Year-Old Flower Buried in Permafrost
24.02.2012
A team of Russian scientists has been able to revive an extinct species of flowering plant using tissue derived from a nearly 32,000 year-old fruit found buried in the permafrost of northeastern Siberia. The regenerated plant is the oldest grown from preserved plant tissue.
