We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean: Description of human activities, its pressures, and vulnerability of the ecosystem
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers assessed human activities and their environmental pressures on the Central Arctic Ocean ecosystem, identifying 11 direct human-induced pressures including contaminants, marine litter with microplastics, and ship traffic. The study found that pollutants and microplastics reach this remote region via air, rivers, and ocean currents from distant global sources, in addition to local activities like research and tourism. The assessment highlights the vulnerability of Arctic ecosystems to these combined pressures as the region undergoes rapid change from global warming.
The Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) is a fast-changing region due to global warming. In addition, it is affected by pressures that are the result of both local human activities, such as research and ship traffic from tourism and the military, and distant global sources that arrive via air, rivers, and ocean currents.Contaminants, non-indigenous species, marine litter (including microplastics), artificial noise pollution, nutrient and organic enrichment, extraction of species, extraction of non-living resources, physical seabed and sea ice disturbance, artificial light pollution, unintended injury and mortality in open water, and human presence on ice are the 11 local, direct human-induced pressures recognized as relevant for the CAO. Pressures from global sources include contaminants, litter, and non‑indigenous species that enter the ocean from outside the CAO. Both categories of pressure are included in this report. The impact of climate change originating from human activity (the pressure heating) is included as climate-related effects on the ecosystem.Ice prokaryotes and viruses, water column and seabed prokaryotes and viruses, ice algae, phytoplankton, ice invertebrates, zooplankton, pelagic squid, soft-bottom and hard-bottom benthos, sympagic-, mesopelagic-, and demersal/bentho-pelagic fishes, polar bear, ringed seal, bowhead whale, narwhal, beluga whale, transient-, seasonal resident- and ice obligate-sea birds were identified as groups or species that represent relevant ecosystem components of the CAO. Most of these taxonomic groups have populations that are widely distributed across the entire CAO, while a few groups have limited distributions on the seabed (hard-bottom benthos), in the water column (whales), or along the ice edge (ice-obligate seabirds and ringed seal). While most ecosystem components are present inside the CAO year-round, some few components (whales and migratory and seasonally resident seabirds) are only present for a few months each year.Some of the relevant pressures introduced by local sources in the CAO are anticipated to have impacts on all (e.g. contaminants), some (e.g. artificial noise pollution), or only a few (e.g. nutrient and organic enrichment) ecosystem components in the CAO.This report is part II to CRR Vol. 355 - Ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean: Description of the ecosystem.Erratum 19/02/26: Spelling of author name corrected.
More Papers Like This
Ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean: Description of human activities, its pressures, and vulnerability of the ecosystem
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers conducted a comprehensive ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean, identifying 11 direct human-induced pressures including marine litter and microplastics that reach the region through local activities and long-range transport via air, rivers, and ocean currents. The study evaluated the vulnerability of key Arctic species and ecological groups to these pressures. The findings highlight that even this remote ocean region faces significant contamination risks from microplastics and other pollutants originating far from the Arctic.
Ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean: Description of human activities, its pressures, and vulnerability of the ecosystem
AI summary Read the abstract
This ecosystem assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean described human activities—including research, tourism, and military shipping—and evaluated the cumulative environmental pressures from both local sources and distant global pollution including microplastics transported via air and ocean currents.
ICES-PICES-PAME Working Group on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) for the Central Arctic Ocean (WGICA)
AI summary Read the abstract
This working group report summarizes the ecological changes occurring in the Central Arctic Ocean as climate change reduces sea ice, alters primary production, and increases human activity. Growing pollution from shipping and river transport of contaminants, including microplastics, adds pressure to this rapidly changing ecosystem.
The problem of Microplastic Accumulation in the Arctic Ocean
AI summary Read the abstract
This review highlights the emerging threat of microplastic accumulation in the rapidly warming Arctic Ocean, documenting MP presence in seawater, sediments, sea ice, and marine organisms and identifying the Arctic as a convergence zone for plastic pollution transported by ocean currents.
A first assessment of microplastics and other anthropogenic particles in Hudson Bay and the surrounding eastern Canadian Arctic waters of Nunavut
AI summary Read the abstract
Scientists collected surface water, zooplankton, sediment, and snow samples from Hudson Bay to northern Baffin Island and found microplastics in all sample types, providing the first comprehensive assessment of microplastic contamination across this broad eastern Canadian Arctic region.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.