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Arctic Coastal Changes

July 26, 2018

Climate change is leading to diminishing sea ice near the Arctic coast, leaving more open water for winds to create more waves, which reach down and stir up sediments on shallow continental shelves. That, in turn, releases radium and other chemicals that are carried up to the surface and swept away into the open ocean. A recent study led Lauren Kipp, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, tracked the radium and found surprising evidence that coastal changes in the Arctic are already occurring and could also have significant impacts on the Arctic food web. Kipp recently defended her Ph.D. thesis. (Illustration by Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)