Understanding the degree of change caused by major rivers delivering freshwater and heat to the Arctic Ocean is important for regulating and managing Arctic commerce and ecosystems as the region opens up to new shipping routes.
Understanding the degree of change caused by major rivers delivering freshwater and heat to the Arctic Ocean is important for regulating and managing Arctic commerce and ecosystems as the region opens up to new shipping routes.
Irina Panyushkina grew up in Siberia, near the Arctic Circle. She was raised on stories of explorers trudging through seas of ice to reach the North Pole.
Now, she is a climate scientist and associate research professor of dendrochronology in the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. And she is trying to understand how a warming world is transforming the place she once called home.
Someday, the Arctic Ocean may no longer host ice, since the northern regions of the world are warming are faster than the rest – a trend scientists refer to as Arctic amplification. As Arctic ice melts, new opportunities and challenges for humans will arise, researchers say.
Freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the continent is thought to exacerbate Arctic amplification, but the extent of its impact isn't fully understood. New research led by Panyushkina measures how the flow of the Yenisei River — the largest freshwater river that flows into the Arctic Ocean — has changed over the last few hundred years, and describes the impact freshwater has had on the Arctic.
Read more at: University of Arizona
A view of the Yenisei River, the largest river that feeds into the Arctic Ocean. (Photo Credit: Irina Panyushkina)
