New Study Reviews What Loss of Arctic Sea Ice Means for Animals Who Call It Home

With most studies regarding Arctic sea ice focused on the environmental effects of the ongoing phenomenon, a new review paper led by Eric Post, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, takes instead a deeper look at the ecological impacts.

"We often wonder what the sea ice loss impact will be on weather, and probably as important or more is its influence on ecosystems," co-author Cecilia Bitz, a University of Washington associate professor of atmospheric sciences said in a press release.

The verdict? It's not just the polar bear who's in trouble.

September 2012 was a record-breaking year in terms of ice loss up north. According to scientists, the year marked the least amount of sea ice the region had seen in some 1,500 years.

Compounding the problems associated with this decrease is the fact that much of the life that lives in and around the sea ice does so along the coasts, the authors explain, adding that its loss will have both direct as well as trickle-down effects, such as changes in food webs, animal behavior, species rangers, interbreeding and disease dynamics.

"The coastal areas are some of the most biologically rich regions in the oceans because of the runoff from the land, which provides the nutrients to support biological productivity, and because polar bears and other species tend to move between land, water and ice," Bitz said.

The microorganisms living in and below sea ice account for more than half the biological productivity in the Arctic Ocean, the authors continue, explaining that while the volume of sea ice is small compared to the entire Arctic Ocean, ice microbes are plentiful since the ice absorbs most of the sunlight.

"The paper is an excellent synthesis of the ecological effects of sea ice decline in the Arctic, summarizing a number of recent observations and studies that all point to large changes in the marine and terrestrial systems," commented Kristin Laidre, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory who was not involved in the study. "The authors also point out important future scientific and management challenges that are coupled to increased human use of the Arctic."