A new study has shed unprecedented light on the highly variable and climate-sensitive routes that substances from Siberian rivers use to travel across the Arctic Ocean.
A new study has shed unprecedented light on the highly variable and climate-sensitive routes that substances from Siberian rivers use to travel across the Arctic Ocean. The findings raise fresh concerns about the increasing spread of pollutants and the potential consequences for fragile polar ecosystems as climate change accelerates.
The international research, published today [14 April] in Nature Communications and led by the University of Bristol, in the UK, provides the clearest ever picture of how the underlying transport system, known as the Transpolar Draft, operates. It also uncovers the various factors controlling this major Arctic surface current, including warmer temperatures which could increase the spread of human-made pollutants.
The Transpolar Drift carries sea ice, fresh water, and suspended matter from the Siberian shelves across the central Arctic towards the Fram Strait channel, which connects to the Nordic Seas.
Read more at University of Bristol
Image: Image shows the German research icebreaker Polarstern moored to an ice floe during the polar night. (Image credit: Steffen Graupner / Alfred Wegener Institute)
