Enhanced eddy activity in the Beaufort Gyre in response to sea ice loss

Armitage, Thomas; Manucharyan, Georgy E.; Petty, Alek; Kwok, R.; Thompson, Andrew F.

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14449-z

Cited by 88 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In general, the AO will be more dynamic, and because it is also baroclinically unstable, more meso-scale features will be produced (e.g., eddies, meanders, fronts). Consistent with this, the expansion and shift of the Beaufort Gyre (Regan et al, 2019) due to increased freshwater accumulation (+40% since 1970(+40% since , Proshutinsky et al, 2019 is accompanied by an increase in eddy activity (Zhao et al, 2014(Zhao et al, , 2016Armitage et al, 2020) and interruptions of the transpolar drift due to accelerating sea-ice melt (Krumpen et al, 2019). Over 2001Over -2014 Bering Strait volume transport from the Pacific to the AO almost doubled as well (0.7 × 10 6 to 1.2 × 10 6 m 3 s −1 ; Woodgate, 2018).…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 71%

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light on the “Invisible” Part of Arctic Primary Production

et al. 2020

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The growth of phytoplankton at high latitudes was generally thought to begin in open waters of the marginal ice zone once the highly reflective sea ice retreats in spring, solar elevation increases, and surface waters become stratified by the addition of sea-ice melt water. In fact, virtually all recent large-scale estimates of primary production in the Arctic Ocean (AO) assume that phytoplankton production in the water column under sea ice is negligible. However, over the past two decades, an emerging literature showing significant under-ice phytoplankton production on a pan-Arctic scale has challenged our paradigms of Arctic phytoplankton ecology and phenology. This evidence, which builds on previous, but scarce reports, requires the Arctic scientific community to change its perception of traditional AO phenology and urgently revise it. In particular, it is essential to better comprehend, on small and large scales, the changing and variable icescapes, the under-ice light field and biogeochemical cycles during the transition from sea-ice covered to ice-free Arctic waters. Here, we provide a baseline of our current knowledge of under-ice blooms (UIBs), by defining their ecology and their environmental setting, but also their regional peculiarities (in terms of occurrence, magnitude, and assemblages), which is shaped by a complex AO. To this end, a multidisciplinary approach, i.e., combining expeditions and modern autonomous technologies, satellite, and modeling analyses, has been used to provide an overview of this pan-Arctic phenological feature, which will become increasingly important in future marine Arctic biogeochemical cycles.

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Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 71%

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light on the “Invisible” Part of Arctic Primary Production

et al. 2020

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“…3) and thinning at the Antarctic Peninsula has triggered speed-up of glaciers upstream (Hogg et al, 2017) as a consequence of reduced ice shelf buttressing. Unlike in Antarctica, where almost all of the ice loss is associated with ice dynamical imbalance, just over half of Greenland's mass loss during this period arose due to increases in meltwater runoff (Enderlin et al, 2014) enhanced by atmospheric circulation during several warm summers (Bevis et al, 2019). The remaining ice loss was due to increased glacier discharge, primarily at Jakobshavn Isbrae (Holland et al, 2008) and at outlet glaciers in the southeast (Howat et al, 2008) and northwest (Moon et al, 2012).…”

Section: Ice Sheetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grounded ice losses have raised the global mean sea level by 24.9 ± 1.8 and 9.7 ± 2.5 mm in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere respectively, totalling 34.6 ± 3.1 mm over the 24-year period. Although the loss of floating sea ice and ice shelves does not contribute to global sea level rise, sea ice decline increases habitat loss (Rode et al, 2014), coastal erosion (Overeem et al, 2011), and ocean circulation (Armitage et al, 2020) and may affect mid-latitude weather and climate (Blackport et al, 2019;Overland et al, 2016).…”

Section: Earth's Ice Imbalancementioning

confidence: 99%

Review article: Earth's ice imbalance

et al. 2021

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Abstract. We combine satellite observations and numerical models to show that Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017. Arctic sea ice (7.6 trillion tonnes), Antarctic ice shelves (6.5 trillion tonnes), mountain glaciers (6.1 trillion tonnes), the Greenland ice sheet (3.8 trillion tonnes), the Antarctic ice sheet (2.5 trillion tonnes), and Southern Ocean sea ice (0.9 trillion tonnes) have all decreased in mass. Just over half (58 %) of the ice loss was from the Northern Hemisphere, and the remainder (42 %) was from the Southern Hemisphere. The rate of ice loss has risen by 57 % since the 1990s – from 0.8 to 1.2 trillion tonnes per year – owing to increased losses from mountain glaciers, Antarctica, Greenland and from Antarctic ice shelves. During the same period, the loss of grounded ice from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and mountain glaciers raised the global sea level by 34.6 ± 3.1 mm. The majority of all ice losses were driven by atmospheric melting (68 % from Arctic sea ice, mountain glaciers ice shelf calving and ice sheet surface mass balance), with the remaining losses (32 % from ice sheet discharge and ice shelf thinning) being driven by oceanic melting. Altogether, these elements of the cryosphere have taken up 3.2 % of the global energy imbalance.

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“…The Arctic sea ice in the Atlantic sector can be predicted from a few years to a decade, because of the strong role exerted by the ocean heat advected from upstream and converged on the position of the sea ice edge (Yeager et al, 2015;Årthun et al, 2017;Dai et al, 2020). Some studies suggested that sea ice persistence in the central Arctic can be modulated by oscillation of the Arctic atmospheric circulation between predominantly cyclonic and anticyclonic circulation regimes over timescales of 5-7 years (Proshutinsky and Johnson, 1997;Armitage et al, 2020). From observations, a remarkable oscillation in SIE and SIV is featuring a pause or enhanced ice loss at a period of 7 years, corresponding to some prominent modes of internal variability, such as the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO, Bitz et al, 1996;Swart et al, 2015;Gascard et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits of sea ice initialization for the interannual-to-decadal climate prediction skill in the Arctic in EC-Earth3

et al. 2021

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Abstract. A substantial part of Arctic climate predictability at interannual timescales stems from the knowledge of the initial sea ice conditions. Among all sea ice properties, its volume, which is a product of sea ice concentration (SIC) and thickness (SIT), is the most responsive parameter to climate change. However, the majority of climate prediction systems are only assimilating the observed SIC due to lack of long-term reliable global observation of SIT. In this study, the EC-Earth3 Climate Prediction System with anomaly initialization to ocean, SIC and SIT states is developed. In order to evaluate the regional benefits of specific initialized variables, three sets of retrospective ensemble prediction experiments are performed with different initialization strategies: ocean only; ocean plus SIC; and ocean plus SIC and SIT initialization. In the Atlantic Arctic, the Greenland–Iceland–Norway (GIN) and Barents seas are the two most skilful regions in SIC prediction for up to 5–6 lead years with ocean initialization; there are re-emerging skills for SIC in the Barents and Kara seas in lead years 7–9 coinciding with improved skills of sea surface temperature (SST), reflecting the impact of SIC initialization on ocean–atmosphere interactions for interannual-to-decadal timescales. For the year 2–9 average, the region with significant skill for SIT is confined to the central Arctic Ocean, covered by multi-year sea ice (CAO-MYI). Winter preconditioning with SIT initialization increases the skill for September SIC in the eastern Arctic (e.g. Kara, Laptev and East Siberian seas) and in turn improve the skill of air surface temperature locally and further expanded over land. SIT initialization outperforms the other initialization methods in improving SIT prediction in the Pacific Arctic (e.g. East Siberian and Beaufort seas) in the first few lead years. Our results suggest that as the climate warming continues and the central Arctic Ocean might become seasonal ice free in the future, the controlling mechanism for decadal predictability may thus shift from sea ice volume to ocean-driven processes.

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Enhanced eddy activity in the Beaufort Gyre in response to sea ice loss

Cited by 88 publications

References 44 publications

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light on the “Invisible” Part of Arctic Primary Production

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light on the “Invisible” Part of Arctic Primary Production

Review article: Earth's ice imbalance

Benefits of sea ice initialization for the interannual-to-decadal climate prediction skill in the Arctic in EC-Earth3

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