Science News - December 22, 2004

Window into Arctic

To make it easy for scientists to find the latest data on the changes being observed in Arctic ecosystems, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has dedicated a website to presenting information collected from reputable scientific sources over the past three decades on the area’s ice, land, climate, marine ecosystem, and human effects. “We thought it was important to present recent Arctic changes in a historical context and show how diverse these changes are,” says James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, where the website was designed and is maintained. The changes being documented in “near real time” include warming spring temperatures, sea ice loss, and the conversion of tundra to wetlands and shrub areas. To see the site, go to www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect.