北冰洋环境快速变化与生态响应

Quick Change of Marine Environment with Ecological Response in the Arctic Ocean

随着全球变暖的加剧,北冰洋环境正在发生快速变化,水温升高、夏季海冰覆盖面积和海冰储量下降、淡水输入增加、盐度下降、海水酸化现象初现,导致原本依托海冰生存的北冰洋生态系统遭受前所未有的冲击。已有研究表明,与冰相关生物的生存状况正在恶化,初级生产者个体呈现小型化趋势,冰藻减少影响底栖生物产量,亚北极种入侵。由于北极环境和生态系统变化远超预期,而人类对生态系统、特别是北冰洋中心区的了解非常有限,如何尽快建立观测体系、加强对生态系统的了解、预测潜在的变化成为未来的重要课题。

The environment of Arctic Ocean are changing quickly with the global warming, e.g., the increase of water temperature and the descent of water salinity, the decrease of ice coverage and ice volume in summer, the increase of fresh water influx, and the occurrence of sea water acidification. These changes significantly influence the ice-associated ecosystem. The previous studies suggest that the habitats of the ice-associated organisms turn worse, the size of the primary producers become smaller, the decrease of ice algae decline the production of benthos, and the invasion of sub-Arctic species influence the local species. Because the variations of Arctic Ocean environment and ecosystem exceed greatly what we expected and the knowledge is limited, a most important task for us in the coming years is to improve the observation systems and the forecasting capability of the potential changes.