Record Delay in Arctic Laptev Sea Ice Formation Can Have Cascading Effects in the Polar Regions

The record-breaking delay in ice formation in the Arctic Laptev Sea can have cascading effects in the polar region.

Latest recorded delay

The Arctic's main ice nursery in the Siberian region has not yet started to freeze, which it should have by this time. This delay in the yearly freezing in the Laptev Sea already cascaded into the unusually long warmth in north Russia and the Atlantic's intrusion of waters.

Scientists have been warning about possible cascading effects in the region.

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Record high temperatures

The area's ocean temperatures have reached 5º C beyond the average after a record heatwave hit together with early sea ice decline from the previous winter.

The usual normal seasonal advance and retreat of the Laptev Sea ice did not occur this year, and the ice's expansion stopped. This resulted in most seawater being present in the region.

According to Colorado State University postdoctoral researcher Zachary Labe, it is unprecedented for the Siberian Arctic region at this late time not to have frozen. It is, he says, consistent with the effects expected with human-induced climate change. According to Labe, the rapidly changing Arctic is due to the emission of greenhouse gases.

A previous study showed that the heatwave in Siberia experienced this year became 600 times likelier due to agricultural and industrial emissions.

READ ALSO: Antarctica Will Most Probably Continue To Experience Ice Loss

Climate change prevents ice from forming

Aside from high ambient temperatures, ice formation is also slowed down by climate change effects, particularly the entry of warmer currents from the Atlantic into the Arctic region, disrupting the normal stratification separating deep warm with cooler surface waters.

According to US National Snow & Ice Data Center senior researcher Walt Meier, the years 2007 to 2020 are the 14 years with the lowest ice since 1979, as shown by satellite records.

Meier says that most of the old Arctic ice is melting, and what is left is the seasonal ice, which is much thinner. Since the 1980s, the overall average thickness was halved. This trend will most likely continue until we see the Arctic's first summer without any ice, which, according to models and existing data, will occur sometime from 2030 to 2050.

According to scientists, this delay in freezing can trigger a positive feedback mechanism that worsens the ice cap state. With a smaller surface ice sheet, there are also lesser white areas for reflecting the sun's heat to space.

Ice's birthplace

The Laptev Sea forms ice along its coast by early winter and lets it drift towards the West and nutrients across the region.

By spring, the ice breaks up in the area of Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland. Late ice formation in Laptev will create thinner ice, most likely not survive long enough to reach Fram Strait.

This will lead to fewer nutrients needed by Arctic plankton, which significantly trap atmospheric carbon dioxide. This will result in fewer plankton, which will consequently lessen carbon trapping. 

Furthermore, more ice in the open sea creates more turbulence in the Arctic ocean's upper layer, conjuring more deep warm water to the surface.

Frustrating, not surprising

According to Alfred Wegener Institute's Stefan Hendricks, a specialist in sea ice physics, what is happening is not a surprise. Scientists already forecasted this long ago, but policymakers have made no concrete action.

With this, the lessened ice formation in the Arctic Laptev Sea and the polar region's warming will likely worsen.

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