Arctic Report Card documents rapid change in Arctic environment

The annual Arctic Report Card released this week revealed unsettling findings of the current state of the Arctic as scientists reported that the Arctic transitions from a carbon sink to a carbon source, that the 2024 summer was the wettest on record and that surface air temperatures were the second warmest since 1900.
Another finding summarizes what Nome and the region experience just this week: Increasing precipitation, including rain-on-snow events, making travel dangerous for people and foraging difficult for wildlife. As of this writing, Nome has canceled school on Tuesday due to icy roads after snowfall turned to rain on Sunday night and Monday.
One of the most significant findings of the Arctic Report Card was that the tundra, which has trapped carbon in permafrost for thousands of years, is now beginning to do the opposite, releasing more carbon than it stores.
“Our observations now show that the tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon that it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “This is yet one more sign, predicted by scientists, of the consequences of inadequately reducing fossil fuel pollution.”
Ninety-seven scientists from eleven countries contributed to the report. The 118-page document was rolled out Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, which was in Washington DC this year.
“This year’s report demonstrates the urgent need for adaptation as climate conditions quickly change,” said Twila Moon, lead editor of the Arctic Report Card and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, in a press release. “Indigenous Knowledge and community-led research programs can inform successful responses to rapid Arctic changes.”
The 2024 Arctic Report Card included chapters on twelve topics: surface air temperature, precipitation, terrestrial snow cover, the Greenland ice sheet, sea ice, sea surface temperature, marine algae, tundra greenness, caribou, carbon cycling, ice seals, and ways of knowing.
“Many of the Arctic’s vital signs that we track are either setting or flirting with record-high or record-low values nearly every year,” said Gerald Frost, senior scientist with Alaska Biological Research and veteran Arctic Report Card author, in a press release. “This is an indication that recent extreme years are the result of long-term, persistent changes, and not the result of variability in the climate system.”
Nome had a relatively normal year by some metrics.
Precipitation is increasing in the Arctic, although less in the Bering Strait than in other places. The report card highlights that observations reveal stark regional differences that make local and regional environmental shifts highly unpredictable for people, plants and animals.
Nome had its wettest winter since measurements began in the 1950s, but did not see the same increases in other seasons. Areas around Wales and Stebbins also bad a particularly wet summer this year.
Temperatures increased significantly throughout the Arctic, but there were regional nuances. On the Seward Peninsula, the winter was several degrees warmer than usual, but the other seasons were closer to their 1991to 2020 averages, with the Seward Peninsula seeing a slightly cooler summer than average. Of course, this is only one year, and the general trendline is moving towards a warmer climate.
Surprisingly, given low amounts of ice and two significant mortality events in the 2010s, ice seals in the Bering and Chukchi Seas remain healthy despite “dramatic” warming and sea ice loss. Ringed seals are eating more saffron cod and less Arctic cod. Their body condition, as measured by their blubber, seems healthy. Still, ice seals pup and nurse their young on the ice.
There is a worry that with rapidly decreasing sea ice, they will have to wean their pups early, leading to higher mortality.
Subsistence hunters in Shishmaref, Little Diomede, Nome, Gambell and Savoonga have shared samples from seal harvests since the 1960s, and much of this information is drawn from those contributions.
“While we can hope that many plants and animals will find pathways for adaptation, as ice seals in the Bering Strait have so far, hope is not a pathway for preparation or risk reduction,” scientists wrote in the Arctic Report Card. “Only the strongest actions on mitigating heat-trapping gas emissions, with almost all human-produced emissions created outside of the Arctic, will allow us to minimize risk and damage into the future.”
The caribou population is decreasing on the Seward Peninsula and Norton Sound. Arctic migratory tundra caribou populations have declined by 65 percent over the last two to three decades. Though the generally smaller coastal herds of the western Arctic have seen some recovery over roughly the last decade, large inland caribou herds are continuing a long-term decline or remain at the lowest populations, noted by Indigenous elders.
The report card ended with a chapter titled “The Original Researchers: Hunters are Scientists Deserving of Sustained Support.” It was written by members of the Ittaq Heritage and Research Center in Nunavut Canada.
“Hunters are highly educated professionals with expertise in a living system of knowledge,” the article states. It said that when Indigenous knowledge is included in western science projects, observations are distilled in ways that fit western scientific communication and understanding frameworks.
Ittaq has a full-time land-based learning program that teaches young hunters to combine keen sustained observation skills, traditional knowledge, and cutting-edge technology to become skilled hunters who can provide for their families and communities.
“There needs to be space, time, and funding to support hunters and indigenous experts to practice, apply and share their own knowledge according to their own methods, in their own language, and for their own purposes,” said the article.
It continued: “For Inuit communities and knowledge holders to continue to build meaningful participation and leadership in the broader Arctic research when they choose, they need to continue to build their own knowledge and experience, with full control, expression, and on their own terms.”
Find the full 2024 Arctic Report Card at https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/