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The influence of declining sea ice on shipping activity in the Canadian Arctic
Author(s) -
Pizzolato Larissa,
Howell Stephen E. L.,
Dawson Jackie,
Laliberté Frédéric,
Copland Luke
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl071489
Subject(s) - bay , sea ice , beaufort sea , arctic , oceanography , arctic ice pack , arctic sea ice decline , canada basin , beaufort scale , climatology , geology , environmental science , physical geography , antarctic sea ice , geography
Significant attention has focused on the potential for increased shipping activity driven by recently observed declines in Arctic sea ice cover. In this study, we describe the first coupled spatial analysis between shipping activity and sea ice using observations in the Canadian Arctic over the 1990–2015 period. Shipping activity is measured by using known ship locations enhanced with a least cost path algorithm to generate ship tracks and quantified by computing total distance traveled in kilometers. Statistically significant increases in shipping activity are observed in the Hudson Strait (150–500 km traveled yr −1 ), the Beaufort Sea (40–450 km traveled yr −1 ), Baffin Bay (50–350 km traveled yr −1 ), and regions in the southern route of the Northwest Passage (50–250 km traveled yr −1 ). Increases in shipping activity are significantly correlated with reductions in sea ice concentration (Kendall's tau up to −0.6) in regions of the Beaufort Sea, Western Parry Channel, Western Baffin Bay, and Foxe Basin. Changes in multiyear ice‐dominant regions in the Canadian Arctic were found to be more influential on changes to shipping activity compared to seasonal sea ice regions.