Flood-Endangered Native Village Builds Berm Against Rising Tide to 'Give Us More Time.'  "Twenty years from now, this place would probably be under water," says Rhoda Asicksik, who lives in the western Alaska coastal village of Shaktoolik. "That's what really, really concerns me."  Asicksik and most of Shaktoolik's 350 residents want the federal and state governments to move the community away from the barrier spit on which it's built - and which is in danger of being engulfed by the ocean or being swamped by waves driven by powerful storms.  KUAC

 

Spring Has Sprung in the Arctic... But it's way too Early for it.  One of the coldest places on Earth is already starting to see signs of spring - a good month or two before it should, according to researchers.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday that  Barrow Observatory , located 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, just reported the  earliest snowmelt in 78 years of recorded history .  Huffington Post

 

The US Doesn't Need to Wait for an Arctic Port to Boost Maritime Safety, Report Says. Even though no one yet is offering to spend money to build a full-service U.S. Arctic port, some steps could - and should - be taken in the next few years to prepare for the potential onslaught of new maritime traffic in the Bering Strait and waters further north, a new federal report says. The report, issued by the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System's Arctic task force, makes 43 specific recommendations it says would improve safety, communications and information for mariners using the narrow strait and the Chukchi and Beaufort seas to the north in the near future. The U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System is a Cabinet-level, interdepartmental committee chaired by the secretary of the Department of Transportation. Alaska Dispatch News

 

Bright Shrubs an Unexpected Ally Against Tundra Warming. Rapid warming in northern mountain environments is resulting in both reduced snow cover and expanding shrub growth-but there's a bright side to all this, according to new research from the University of Alberta. Other recent studies have shown that spring snow cover duration in the Yukon has decreased by about 11 days per decade over the past 50 years. Because the highly reflective  snow cover  acts as a shield against solar energy, the advancing snow melt exposes more of the relatively dark  tundra  underneath, thus compounding the  warming  effect.  Phys.org

 

Study Helps Explain Sea Ice Difference at Earth's Poles. Why has the sea ice cover surrounding Antarctica been increasing slightly, in sharp contrast to the drastic loss of sea ice occurring in the Arctic Ocean? A new NASA-led study finds the geology of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are responsible. A NASA/NOAA/university team led by Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, used satellite radar, ea surface temperature, land form and bathymetry (ocean depth) data to study the physical processes and properties affecting Antarctic sea ice. They found that two persistent geological factors-the topography of Antarctica and the depth of the ocean surrounding it-are influencing winds and ocean currents, respectively, to drive the formation and evolution of Antarctica's sea ice cover and help sustain it. Phys.org

 

Investment Attractiveness of Northern Sea Route Falls With Dwindling Oil Prices. Falling oil prices have harmed the investment attractiveness of the shipping route lying along Russia's Arctic coast - often referred to as the Northern Sea Route, Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told the media on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit. He said that on the one hand climate change and the melting of the ice cap is a factor that makes the route more lucrative than it has been so far. "But on the other, the fluctuations of oil prices the world market has seen for the past two years have greatly harmed the investment attractiveness and economic model of the Arctic shipping route's operation. The price of crude has slumped and the transportation companies' costs in the price of oil are not as significant," he said. Hellenic Shipping News

 

The Arctic Ocean is About to get Spicier.  Relative temperature and salinity variations within seawater of the same density. Warmer, saltier ocean water is considered spicy while cooler, fresher water is minty.  Climate change   will spice up the Arctic Ocean, researchers report in the April   Journal of Physical Oceanography.