Arctic Report Card 2015 December 2015 www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard Citing the complete report: M. O. Jeffries, J. Richter-Menge, and J. E. Overland, Eds., 2015: Arctic Report Card 2015, http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard. Citing an essay (for example): Derksen, C., R. Brown, L. Mudryk, and K. Luojus, 2015: Snow [in Arctic Report Card 2015], http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard. 1 Arctic Report Card 2015 Table of Contents Authors and Affiliations .............................................................................................................. 3 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 7 Surface Air Temperature ...........................................................................................................10 Terrestrial Snow Cover .............................................................................................................17 Greenland Ice Sheet .................................................................................................................22 Sea Ice .....................................................................................................................................33 Sea Surface Temperature .........................................................................................................41 Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity .............................................................................................44 Tundra Greenness ....................................................................................................................54 River Discharge ........................................................................................................................60 Walruses in a Time of Climate Change .....................................................................................66 Climate Change is Pushing Boreal Fish Northwards to the Arctic..............................................75 Community-based Observing Network Systems for Arctic Change Detection and Response....82 Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Velocity: New Data Sets .............................................................89 2 Arctic Report Card 2015 Authors and Affiliations L. Alessa, Center for Resilient Communities, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA; International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA; Department of Homeland Security Arctic Domain Awareness Center, Anchorage, AK, USA M. M. Aschan, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway D. Atkinson, University of Victoria, Department of Geography, Victoria, BC, Canada U. S. Bhatt, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA P. A. Bieniek, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA N. T. Boelman, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA J. E. Box, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark R. Brown, Climate Research Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, Canada J. Cappelen, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark J. C. Comiso, Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA L. W. Cooper, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, MD, USA C. Derksen, Climate Research Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, Canada A. V. Dolgov, Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, Murmansk, Russia H. E. Epstein, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA S. Farrell, NOAA Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA R. S. Fausto, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark X. Fettweis, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium B. C. Forbes, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland D. Forbes, Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Dartmouth, NS, Canada M. Fossheim, Institute of Marine Research, Norway K. E. Frey, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA S. Gerland, Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromsø, Norway R. R. Gradinger, Institute of Marine Research, Tromsø, Norway 3 Arctic Report Card 2015 J. M. Grebmeier, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, MD, USA D. Griffith, Center for Resilient Communities, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA E. Hanna, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK K. Hansen, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark I. Hanssen-Bauer, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Blindern, 0313 Oslo, Norway S. Hendricks, Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany R. M. Holmes, Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA, USA R. B. Ingvaldsen, Institute of Marine Research, Norway M. O. Jeffries, Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA, USA E. Johannesen, Institute of Marine Research, Norway I. Joughin, Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA S. -J. Kim, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea A. Kliskey, Center for Resilient Communities, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA; International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA K. M. Kovacs, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway P. Lemons, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, AK, USA K. Luojus, Arctic Research Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland C. Lydersen, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway J. G. MacCracken, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, AK, USA M. Macias-Fauria, School of Geography and the Environment, University Oxford, Oxford, UK J. W. McClelland, University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX, USA W. Meier, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA T. Moon, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA T. Mote, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA L. Mudryk, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Canada T. Mustonen, Snowchange Cooperative, Selkie, Finland I. H. Myers-Smith, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 4 Arctic Report Card 2015 J. E. Overland, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, USA D. Perovich, ERDC - CRREL, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover USA; Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA J. Pinzon, Biospheric Science Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA R. Primicerio, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway A. Proshutinsky, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA P. Pulsifer, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA M. K. Raynolds, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA J. Richter-Menge, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, USA A. I. Shiklomanov, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA; Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia C. J. P. P. Smeets, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands S. K. Sweet, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA S. E. Tank, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada M. Tedesco, The City College of New York, New York, NY, USA; Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA R. L. Thoman, NOAA, National Weather Service, Fairbanks, AK, USA M. -L. Timmermans, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA J. -É. Tremblay, Québec-Océan and Takuvik, Biology Department, Université Laval, Québec City, QC, Canada M. Tretiakov, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia M. Tschudi, Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA C. J. Tucker, Biospheric Science Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA D. van As, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark R. S. W. van de Wal, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands J. Wahr, Department of Physics & Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA D. A. Walker, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA J. E. Walsh, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA 5 Arctic Report Card 2015 M. Wang, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 6 Arctic Report Card 2015 Executive Summary M. O. Jeffries1, J. Richter-Menge2, J. E. Overland3 1Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA, USA 2U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, USA 3National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, USA December 7, 2015 The Arctic Report Card (www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/) considers a range of environmental observations throughout the Arctic, and is updated annually. As in previous years, the 2015 update to the Arctic Report Card highlights the changes that continue to occur in both the physical and biological components of the Arctic environmental system. The average annual surface air temperature anomaly