Journal
EARTHS FUTURE
Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2019EF001284
Keywords
sea ice; arctic; transport; climate change; exclusive economic zones; pollutants
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Fond de recherche du Quebec -Nature et Technologies (FRQNT)
- Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS)
- NSERC
- NSF-OPP Grant [1504348]
- University of Colorado Boulder
- MEOPAR
- NSERC Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program
- National Science Foundation [NSF-OCE 14-36666, NSF-PLR 15-04404]
- Arizona State University
- ONR [N00014-11-1-0977]
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The Arctic is undergoing a rapid transition toward a seasonal ice regime, with widespread implications for the polar ecosystem, human activities, as well as the global climate. Here we focus on how the changing ice cover impacts transborder exchange of sea ice between the exclusive economic zones of the Arctic states. We use the Sea Ice Tracking Utility, which follows ice floes from formation to melt, in conjunction with output diagnostics from two ensembles of the Community Earth System Model that follow different future emissions scenarios. The Community Earth System Model projects that by midcentury, transnational ice exchange will more than triple, with the largest increase in the amount of transnational ice originating from Russia and the Central Arctic. However, long-distance ice transport pathways are predicted to diminish in favor of ice exchanged between neighboring countries. By the end of the 21st century, we see a large difference between the two future emissions scenarios considered: Consistent nearly ice-free summers under the high emissions scenario act to reduce the total fraction of transnational ice exchange compared to midcentury, whereas the low emissions scenario continues to see an increase in the proportion of transnational ice. Under both scenarios, transit times are predicted to decrease to less than 2 yr by 2100, compared to a maximum of 6 yr under present-day conditions and 2.5 yr by midcentury. These significant changes in ice exchange and transit time raise important concerns regarding risks associated with ice-rafted contaminants.
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