Sea-ice research in the Fram Strait
between Greenland and Svalbard.
Photo: Sebastian Gerland, Norwegian
Polar Institute
and human well-being. When there is no more summer This theme of complexity is introduced in the discussion
sea ice in the Arctic, some ice-adapted animal popula- of feedbacks and interactions in Chapter 3 and picked
tions and species could be driven rapidly to extinction, up in the subsequent chapters in discussions of impacts.
from the ice algae and crustaceans that are key compo- The chapter on sea-level rise (Chapter 6C) discusses the
nents of polar marine food webs to polar bears whose complexity of interactions associated with assessing and
life cycles are built around the existence of year-round responding to the impacts from sea-level rise.
sea ice. There are potential cascading effects from these
abrupt changes, including on the people whose liveli- Another message from the preceding chapters is the
hoods and cultures are tied to the affected resources. need for a concerted effort to improve research and long-
term monitoring to address the gaps in our knowledge
The chapters in this book are built around components about what is happening with ice and snow. Some of
of the cryosphere, and the impacts are considered one by the biggest questions, of most significance for the long-
one. But in the real world, these impacts interact with one term future of human societies on Earth, are related to
another, often in unexpected ways, in some cases result- the fate of the ice sheets and the consequences to sea-
ing in greater impacts, in some cases partially compensat- level rise. But there are many other questions that need
ing for one another. This is further complicated by nega- to be answered about how the changes in ice and snow
tive and positive feedbacks altering the rates of change. affect climate and oceans, biodiversity, and human well-
CHAPTER 9 POLICY AND PERSPECTIVES 217