The polar seas cover ~20% of the global ocean and include the deep Arctic Ocean and surrounding shelf seas as well as the Southern Ocean south of the polar front. They play a significant role in ocean circulation and absorption of anthropogenic CO2 . The Arctic is characterised by polar seas surrounded by land, while the Antarctic comprises continental Antarctica surrounded by the Southern Ocean. These high-latitude ecosystems share key properties, including strong seasonality in solar radiation and sea ice coverage. Sea ice regulates water-column physics, chemistry and biology, air-sea exchange and is a critical habitat for many species. In spring, when solar radiation returns and sea ice melts, intense phytoplankton blooms fuel food webs that include rich communities of both resident and summer-migrant species, with typically high dependency on a few key species for trophic transfer . Over the past two decades, Arctic Ocean surface temperature has increased in line with the global average, while there has been no uniform warming across the Antarctic  . Thus, the rate of change due to warming, and associated sea ice loss, is greater in the Arctic than in the Antarctic  . Both Arctic and Antarctic regions have a long history of living resource extraction, including some of the largest fisheries on the globe in terms of catches. However, only the Arctic hosts human populations, holding a rich Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge  on these social-ecological systems .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report