19 Facts About Arctic

Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth.

Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost containing tundra.

Life in the Arctic includes zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants and human societies.

Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures and heavier snowfalls than the colder and drier interior areas.

Arctic life is characterized by adaptation to short growing seasons with long periods of sunlight, and cold, dark, snow-covered winter conditions.

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Arctic vegetation is composed of plants such as dwarf shrubs, graminoids, herbs, lichens, and mosses, which all grow relatively close to the ground, forming tundra.

Arctic includes copious natural resources to which modern technology and the economic opening up of Russia have given significant new opportunities.

Arctic contains some of the last and most extensive continuous wilderness areas in the world, and its significance in preserving biodiversity and genotypes is considerable.

The Arctic is particularly susceptible to the abrasion of groundcover and to the disturbance of the rare breeding grounds of the animals that are characteristic to the region.

Eight Arctic nations are all members of the Arctic Council, as are organizations representing six indigenous populations.

Arctic shipping is subject to some regulatory control through the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, adopted by the International Maritime Organization on 1 January 2017 and applies to all ships in Arctic waters over 500 tonnes.

Research in the Arctic has long been a collaborative international effort, evidenced by the International Polar Year.

Since 1937, the larger portion of the Asian-side Arctic region has been extensively explored by Soviet and Russian crewed drifting ice stations.

Arctic is comparatively clean, although there are certain ecologically difficult localized pollution problems that present a serious threat to people's health living around these pollution sources.

Arctic has climate change rates that are amongst the highest in the world.

Effects of global warming in the Arctic include rising temperatures, loss of sea ice, and melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Arctic is especially vulnerable to the effects of any climate change, as has become apparent with the reduction of sea ice in recent years.

Current Arctic warming is leading to ancient carbon being released from thawing permafrost, leading to methane and carbon dioxide production by micro-organisms.

One harbinger of the opening navigability of the Arctic took place in the summer of 2016 when the Crystal Serenity successfully navigated the Northwest Passage, a first for a large cruise ship.