Climate change has triggered rapid, unprecedented and cascading changes in polar regions that have profound implications for ecosystems and people globally. Although physically remote from the largest population centres, polar systems are inextricably linked to the rest of the world through interconnected ocean currents, atmospheric interactions and weather, ecological and social systems, commerce and trade. The nutrient-rich waters of the polar regions fuel some of the most productive marine ecosystems on earth, which in turn support fisheries for species packed with vital macronutrients that are essential for human health and well-being. The largest most sustainable fisheries in the world are located in polar waters, where a mix of ice, seasonal light and cold nutrient-rich waters fuel schools of millions of fish that swell and retract in numbers across the years, reflecting interlaced cycles of icy cold waters, lipid-rich prey and abundant predators. Polar systems thus exist in a productive balance that has supported vibrant ecocultural connections between Indigenous Peoples and the Arctic for millennia and has supported global food production and trade for centuries. Climate change increasingly destabilises this balance with uncertain outcomes for Indigenous Peoples and local residents in the Arctic as well as for the rest of the world. Triggered by warming oceans and air temperatures, accelerated melting of sea ice, glaciers and IS in polar regions in turn impacts ocean salinity, sea levels and circulation throughout the global ocean. Warming waters have also pushed cold-adapted species poleward, eroded the cold barrier between boreal and Arctic species, and induced rapid reorganisation of polar ecosystems. Studies increasingly indicate that the complex web of physical and biological connections that have fuelled these productive regions will falter without the strong regulating influence of cryospheric change. At the same time, the global demand for food is increasing, particularly the demand for highly nutritious marine protein, placing increasing importance on stabilising polar ecological systems and minimising climate change impacts and risks.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report