Sketch for an Arctic Council project on the impacts of reduction in sea ice, a changing Greenland ice sheet and varying snow cover and permafrost conditions. Climate Change and the Crysosphere.
Date
2007-04Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
"The last 5-6 years, the rate of loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has increased considerably. If this accelerated loss of sea ice continues, the Arctic Ocean could be icefree during summer earlier than projected in the ACIA report. The local and regional impacts of reduced sea ice could consequently be more imminent than previously thought. This situation makes the need for more detailed and thorough knowledge about the impacts, and more accurate projections about the future sea ice extent, more urgent. Further, IPCC (AR4) points to a possible thinning of the Greenland ice sheet as one of the major unknowns in the Arctic climate system and with severe global consequences (i.e., rising sea level). Also, changing in precipitation, snow cover conditions and a thawing of the permafrost will affect the hydrological situation and thereby have widespread consequences. For example, this will have an affect on vegetation, the food availability for animals as well as and altering the runoff from large Arctic rivers. Thawing permafrost causes release of the greenhouse gas methane as well as impacts on
infrastructures previously built on more stable permafrost conditions." /.../
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Recommendations to Reduce Black Carbon and Methane Emissions to Slow Arctic Climate Change. (DRAFT).
Arctic Council Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers (Arctic Council Secretariat, 2013)This is a draft summary report of the Arctic Council Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers. It is subject to further change before being finalized for the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in May 2013. Some figures ... -
Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic part C (AACA-C). Draft Implementation Plan. Version 1.1. Draft 01 October 2013.
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), 2013)Draft implementation plan for the Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic part C (AACA_C) (Version 1.1 as of October 1 2013) from the Arctic Council working group Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), presented ... -
Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change. (DRAFT).
Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) (CAFF International Secretariat, 2010)In 2001, the Arctic Council ́s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group published the report Arctic Flora and Fauna: Status and Conservation [7], the first truly circumpolar overview of Arctic biodiversity. ...