The authors of Amplified Arctic Surface Warming and Sea Ice Loss Due to Phytoplankton and Colored Dissolved Material explore the effects of increasing availability of light to ocean microrganisms in the Arctic Ocean. They claim to identify an overlooked and potentially significant positive feedback mechanism. In a nutshell, increased attenuation of light in the upper few meters of the ocean due to increased phytoplankton population concentrates energy where it counts most, leading to later formation of ice due to increased surface temperature, with further implications. The authors observe that this effect may help to explain discrepancy between predicted ice loss in the Arctic Ocean versus observation.
The abstract:
Optically active water constituents attenuate solar radiation and hence affect the vertical distribution of energy in the upper ocean. To understand their implications, we operate an ocean biogeochemical model coupled to a general circulation model with sea ice. Incorporating the effect of phytoplankton and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) on light attenuation in the model increases the sea surface temperature in summer and decreases sea ice concentration in the Arctic Ocean. Locally, the sea ice season is reduced by up to one month. CDOM drives a significant part of these changes, suggesting that an increase of this material will amplify the observed Arctic surface warming through its direct thermal effect. Indirectly, changing advective processes in the Nordic Seas may further intensify this effect. Our results emphasize the phytoplankton and CDOM feedbacks on the Arctic ocean and sea ice system and underline the need to consider these effects in future modeling studies to enhance their plausibility.
Open access and free to read.
Observations of global warming & effects
Amplified Arctic Surface Warming and Sea Ice Loss Due to Phytoplankton and Colored Dissolved Material
Open Access DOI: 10.1029/2020gl088795
Observation-derived ice growth curves show patterns and trends in maximum ice thickness and safe travel duration of Alaskan lakes and rivers
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-14-3595-2020
Faster decline and higher variability in the sea ice thickness of the marginal Arctic seas
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-282 (preprint)
Advancing frost dates have reduced frost risk among most North American angiosperms since 1980
Rapid Reconfiguration of the Greenland Ice Sheet Coastal Margin
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1029/2020jf005585
Instrumentation & observational methods of climate & global warming, effects
Vulnerable top-of-permafrost ground ice indicated by remotely sensed late-season subsidence
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-312 (preprint)
Mapping the grounding zone of Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica, from ICESat-2 laser altimetry
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-14-3629-2020
Modeling, simulation & projection of global warming & global warming effects MSWE
Convective Aggregation and the Amplification of Tropical Precipitation Extremes
Open Access DOI: 10.1029/2020av000201
Multi-hazard climate risk projections for the United States
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1007/s11069-020-04385-y
Projection of vegetation impacts on future droughts over West Africa using a coupled RegCM-CLM-CN-DV
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02879-z
Using the climate feedback response analysis method to quantify climate feedbacks in the middle atmosphere
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/acp-20-12409-2020
Significant additional Antarctic warming in atmospheric bias-corrected ARPEGE projections
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-307 (preprint)
Projected changes in days with zero?crossings for Norway
DOI: 10.1002/joc.6913
Advances in climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection
A Hybrid Downscaling Approach for Future Temperature and Precipitation Change
DOI: 10.1175/jamc-d-20-0013.1
Cryosphere & climate change
Mechanics and dynamics of pinning points on the Shirase Coast, West Antarctica
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-298 (preprint)
Energetics of Surface Melt in West Antarctica
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-311 (preprint)
Faster decline and higher variability in the sea ice thickness of the marginal Arctic seas
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-282 (preprint)
Vulnerable top-of-permafrost ground ice indicated by remotely sensed late-season subsidence
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-2020-312 (preprint)
Mapping the grounding zone of Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica, from ICESat-2 laser altimetry
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/tc-14-3629-2020
Amplified Arctic Surface Warming and Sea Ice Loss Due to Phytoplankton and Colored Dissolved Material
Open Access DOI: 10.1029/2020gl088795
Paleoclimate
Could the Last Interglacial Constrain Projections of Future Antarctic Ice Mass Loss and Sea?Level Rise?
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1029/2019jf005418 (preprint)
Biology & global warming
Projection of vegetation impacts on future droughts over West Africa using a coupled RegCM-CLM-CN-DV
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02879-z
Population variation in the thermal response to climate change reveals differing sensitivity in a benthic shark
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15422
Aboveground biomass in Inner Mongolian temperate grasslands decreases under climate warming
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/acp-2020-1088 (preprint)
A century of coping with environmental and ecological changes via compensatory biomineralization in mussels
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15417
Advancing frost dates have reduced frost risk among most North American angiosperms since 1980
A decision framework for evidence?based climate adaptation interventions
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15429
Temperature dependence of metabolic rate in tropical and temperate aquatic insects: Support for the Climate Variability Hypothesis in mayflies but not stoneflies
Open Access DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15400
Warming leads to more closed nitrogen cycling in nitrogen?rich tropical forests
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15432
Projections of Mountain Snowpack Loss for Wolverine Denning Elevations in the Rocky Mountains
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1029/2020ef001537
GHG sources & sinks, flux
Reviews and syntheses: The mechanisms underlying carbon storage in soil
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/bg-17-5223-2020
Estimating CH4, CO2 and CO emissions from coal mining and industrial activities in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin using an aircraft-based mass balance approach
Open Access DOI: 10.5194/acp-2020-282-rc2
Much stronger tundra methane emissions during autumn?freeze than spring?thaw
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15421
Characterisation of methane sources in Lutjewad, The Netherlands, using quasi-continuous isotopic composition measurements
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1080/16000889.2020.1823733
Characterising organic carbon sources in Anthropocene affected Arctic upland lake catchments, Disko Island, West Greenland
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/bg-2020-347 (preprint)
Methane paradox in tropical lakes? Sedimentary fluxes rather than pelagic production in oxic conditions sustain methanotrophy and emissions to the atmosphere
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/bg-17-5209-2020
The water column of the Yamal tundra lakes as a microbial filter preventing methane emission
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/bg-2020-317 (preprint)
Aboveground biomass in Inner Mongolian temperate grasslands decreases under climate warming
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/acp-2020-1088 (preprint)
Afforestation increases ecosystem productivity and carbon storage in China during the 2000s
DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108227
A physiology?based Earth observation model indicate stagnation in the global gross primary production during recent decades
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15424
Thawing permafrost and methane emission in Siberia: Synthesis of observations, reanalysis, and predictive modeling
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-020-01392-y
Urbanization and fragmentation mediate temperate forest carbon cycle response to climate
Open Access DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abbf16
Reducing Uncertainties of Future Global Soil Carbon Responses to Climate and Land Use Change With Emergent Constraints
DOI: 10.1029/2020gb006589
CO2 removal & mitigation science & engineering
Electro-reduction of carbon dioxide at low over-potential at a metal–organic framework decorated cathode
Open Access DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19236-4
The importance of nitrogen for net carbon sequestration when considering natural climate solutions
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15381
Geoengineering climate
Detectability of Artificial Ocean Alkalinization and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection in MPI?ESM
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1029/2020ef001634
Climate change communications & cognition
Credible Threat: Perceptions of Pandemic Coronavirus, Climate Change and the Morality and Management of Global Risks
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.578562
China’s Pathway to Climate Sustainability: A Diachronic Framing Analysis of People’s Daily’s Coverage of Climate Change (1995–2018)
DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2020.1817766
Climate change perception, vulnerability, and readiness: inter-country variability and emerging patterns in Latin America
DOI: 10.1007/s13412-020-00639-0
Greening the Economy through Voluntary Private Sector Initiatives or Government Regulation? A Public Opinion Perspective
Open Access DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.09.013
Agronomy & climate change
30 years of free?air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE): What have we learned about future crop productivity and its potential for adaptation?
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15375
Natural variations of SLG1 confer high-temperature tolerance in indica rice
Analyzing adaptation strategies for maize production under future climate change in Guanzhong Plain, China
DOI: 10.1007/s11027-020-09935-0
Potential management interventions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from tea cultivation
DOI: 10.1080/17583004.2020.1840872
Feedback modelling of the impacts of drought: a case study in coffee production systems in Viet Nam
Open Access DOI: 10.1016/j.crm.2020.100255
Economics & finance of climate change & mitigation
Open Access DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abc046
Electricity market design for low-carbon and flexible systems: Room for improvement in Chile
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111997
Implication of emission regulation on cost and tariffs of coal-based power plants in India: A system modelling approach
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111924
Climate change mitigation & adaptation public policy research
Governing the health risks of climate change: opportunities for regeneration in an age of planetary health
DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.10.002
Anticipating futures through models: the rise of Integrated Assessment Modelling in the climate science-policy interface since 1970
Open Access DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102191
Integrating seasonal climate forecasts into adaptive social protection in the Sahel
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2020.1825920
10 Years on: managing the changing health risks of climate change
DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.08.013
Climate change impacts on human culture
Projected changes in days with zero?crossings for Norway
DOI: 10.1002/joc.6913
The global scale, distribution and growth of aviation: Implications for climate change
Open Access DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102194
Flood vulnerability and its influencing factors
DOI: 10.1007/s11069-020-04267-3
Other
Addendum to 'Assessing ExxonMobil's climate change communications (1977–2014)' Supran and Oreskes (2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12 084019)
Open Access DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab89d5
Future impacts of climate change on inland Ramsar wetlands
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-00942-2
Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives
Risk Management Solutions for Climate Change–Induced Disasters
DOI: 10.1111/risa.13616
Seasonality of biological and physical systems as indicators of climatic variation and change
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02894-0
Ideas and Perspectives: When ocean acidification experiments are not the same, reproducibility is not tested
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.5194/bg-2020-394 (preprint)
Why the divestment movement is missing the mark
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-00950-2
COVID-19, the Anthropocene, and the Imperative of US–China Cooperation
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1007/s10393-020-01494-9
Beyond 2020: converging crises demand integrated responses
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1007/s11625-020-00876-w
Harnessing international climate governance to drive a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic
Open Access pdf DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2020.1835603
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