The decline coincides with a dramatic period of sea ice loss.
"The changes we report suggest that the Arctic Ocean ecosystem passed a tipping point around 2009." ...
Most of the sunlight reaching the Arctic Ocean is reflected to space by sea ice, effectively shielding ocean ecosystems from sunlight. As the Arctic sea ice continues its downward trend, larger areas ...
Over the past 25 years, the amount of summer Arctic sea ice has diminished by more than 1 million square kilometers. As a result, vast areas of the Arctic Ocean are now, on average, ice-free in summer ...