Education - learning about landfast ice


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Landfast ice role in polar regions
Landfast ice plays a unique role in the Arctic coastal environment. One of those roles is its contribution to the shelf freshwater cycle. In winter, a considerable amount of river runoff is "locked up" in sea ice as it grows and thickens. Later during summer, the ice melt releases most of this freshwater back to shelf water. Therefore, landfast ice directly affects the spreading and redistribution of river runoff into the Arctic Ocean. The freshwater stored in landfast ice is comparable to the total annual runoff of the four largest Arctic rivers. However, the growth and melt of fast ice displays a large interannual variability. Of climatic significance are the year-to-year changes in the storage and timing of the released fresh water. Recent observations indicate some substantial changes in the Arctic climate. These changes may affect the freshwater exchange between the land and the upper ocean, partly through altering the amount and timing of growth and melting patterns of landfast ice.

Breakup of ice shelves

Landfast ice and arctic people
Coastal landfast ice serves as a platform for indigenous people to hunt whales and polar bears. The successful hunting rate depends largely on ice conditions, such as whether and when the ice floes consolidate and how far the ice cover extends from the shore. Changes to ice conditions have social consequences that cause arctic peoples to modify how they live. Moreover, the outside world has economic interests in the Arctic that are further altering its environment and that of Antarctica.

Animals hurt by decreasing landfast ice

More about ice

Last update: December 9, 2003

©2003 University of Washington • Applied Physics Lab • Polar Science Center