Scientists study the impact of glacial meltwater on light availability for kelp in Young Sound, NE Greenland. The transport of meltwater from land to the coastal ocean is one of the mechanisms by which climate effects on land are exported to the fjords and contributes to the accumulated impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems. Credit: Karl Attard.

Scientists have highlighted how threats to Arctic coasts amid climate change have been overlooked, making the picture worse than already thought.

It is well documented that the Arctic is warming at a rate three to four times faster than the global average, that sea ice is melting, glaciers retreat and permafrost thaws.

But what happens when these changes are combined? This is the reality for Arctic coastal ecosystems.

As climate change rapidly transforms Arctic marine systems, the dramatic image of a polar bear struggling on a melting ice floe has become symbolic of the region’s environmental crisis.

But Scientists argue that coastal Arctic ecosystems are undergoing a complementary set of changes to those in the open ocean.

These changes are intensified by the interaction of land-based and marine transformations, driving significant impacts on both the environment and local communities.

The researchers observed: “An increasing number of ecosystem drivers along the Arctic coasts are having broader implications for both ecological and human systems.”

Whilst Mikael Sejr, a professor at the Institute of Ecoscience at Aarhus University, said: “The consequences of these changes are greater than what can be quantified in the open Arctic Ocean alone.”

With these changes come critical knowledge gaps. Filling these gaps is essential to ensuring that the socioecological systems along Arctic coasts can adapt and remain sustainable in the face of ongoing climate shifts.