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As the impacts of climate change grow, we need better ways to raise awareness and motivate action. Here we assess the effectiveness of an Arctic climate change card game in comparison with the more conventional approach of reading an illustrated article. In-person assessments with control/reading and treatment/game groups (N = 41), were followed four weeks later with a survey. The game was found to be as effective as the article in teaching content of the impacts of climate change over the short term, and was more effective than the article in long-term retention of new information. Game players also had higher levels of engagement and perceptions that they knew ways to help protect Arctic ecosystems. They were also more likely to recommend the game to friends or family than those in the control group were likely to recommend the article to friends or family. As we consider ways to broaden engagement with climate change, we should include games in our portfolio of approaches.

This first analysis of aggregated data from the Kahoot! game-based player response system demonstrates that it can provide assessments of overall US student polar knowledge and identifies differenc...

This Special Issue “Shaping Tomorrow’s Arctic” explores the past, present and future of Arctic sustainability [...]

The polar regions are experiencing dramatic and tangible impacts due to climate change (IPCC, 2014; USGCRP, 2018). The Arctic is the first region on the planet to experience a major abrupt climate ...

Climate change is a highly complex social-ecological problem characterized by system-type dynamics that are important to communicate in a variety of settings, ranging from formal education to decision makers to informal education of the general public. Educational games are one approach that may enhance systems thinking skills. This study used a randomized controlled experiment to compare the impact on the mental models of participants of an educational card game vs. an illustrated article about the Arctic social-ecological system. A total of 41 participants (game: n = 20; reading: n = 21) created pre- and post-intervention mental models of the system, based on a "fuzzy cognitive mapping" approach. Maps were analyzed using network statistics. Both reading the article and playing the game resulted in measurable increases in systems understanding. The group reading the article perceived a more complex system after the intervention, with overall learning gains approximately twice those of the game players. However, game players demonstrated similar learning gains as article readers regarding the climate system, actions both causing environmental problems and protecting the Arctic, as well as the importance of the base- and mid-levels of the food chain. These findings contribute to the growing evidence showing that games are important resources to include as strategies for building capacity to understand and steward sustainable social-ecological systems, in both formal and informal education.

The Sea Ice Tracking System (SITU), formerly known as the IceTracker or Lagrangian Ice Tracking System, has been expanded to include new functions facilitating a wide range of new applications (http://icemotion.labs.nsidc.org/SITU/). Ice motion vectors are calculated from an optimal interpolation of satellite-derived, free-drift and buoy drift estimates (Polar Pathfinder dataset, version 4, https://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0116; International Arctic Buoy Program, http://iabp.apl.washington.edu/; NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/). SITU now calculates forward and backward trajectories of Antarctic as well as Arctic sea ice from 1979 to 2018 and incorporates basin-wide contextual information including timeseries of bathymetry, ice concentration, ice age, ice motion, air temperature, pressure, and wind speed, along the tracks. A new animated background option allows users to visualize these basin-wide changing environmental conditions as the tracking progresses. SITU can be used by researchers, educators, local and indigenous communities, policy and planning professionals, and industries. For instance, geologists can use SITU to determine the provenance of sediment transported by sea-ice and deposited at an ocean core site; biologists can identify source region of biomass transported by sea-ice and seeding algal bloom in a given sea, or overlay bear and birds tracks over ice conditions or ice types animated in the background; coastal communities can backtrack ice to reveal age, origin and other factors that influence habitats of ice-associated species; people planning future expeditions can review recent ice conditions along potential cruise tracks, historians can compare current air temperatures, wind conditions, and ice concentration with past expeditions; students can learn about sea ice motion in the Arctic or compare recent ice drift (Tara or MOSAIC) with that of the epic expedition of Nansen. A new Eulerian option allows users to see changing conditions at one point over the full satellite record (1978 to present). This Eulerian depiction reveals variability as well as trends, and can provide context for data retrieved from a mooring, sediment trap, or sediment core. Publically hosted on the NSIDC Labs webpage, data can be downloaded graphically or in spreadsheet format for deeper analysis.

The Arctic is undergoing a rapid transition toward a seasonal ice regime, with widespread implications for the polar ecosystem, human activities, as well as the global climate. Here we focus on how the changing ice cover impacts transborder exchange of sea ice between the exclusive economic zones of the Arctic states. We use the Sea Ice Tracking Utility, which follows ice floes from formation to melt, in conjunction with output diagnostics from two ensembles of the Community Earth System Model that follow different future emissions scenarios. The Community Earth System Model projects that by midcentury, transnational ice exchange will more than triple, with the largest increase in the amount of transnational ice originating from Russia and the Central Arctic. However, long‐distance ice transport pathways are predicted to diminish in favor of ice exchanged between neighboring countries. By the end of the 21st century, we see a large difference between the two future emissions scenarios considered: Consistent nearly ice‐free summers under the high emissions scenario act to reduce the total fraction of transnational ice exchange compared to midcentury, whereas the low emissions scenario continues to see an increase in the proportion of transnational ice. Under both scenarios, transit times are predicted to decrease to less than 2 yr by 2100, compared to a maximum of 6 yr under present‐day conditions and 2.5 yr by midcentury. These significant changes in ice exchange and transit time raise important concerns regarding risks associated with ice‐rafted contaminants.

In this perspective on the future of the Arctic, we explore actions taken to mitigate warming and adapt to change since the Paris agreement on the temperature threshold that should not be exceeded in order to avoid dangerous interference with the climate system. Although 5 years may seem too short a time for implementation of major interventions, it actually is a considerable time span given the urgency at which we must act if we want to avoid crossing the 1.5 to

The changing Arctic sea-ice cover is likely to impact the trans-border exchange of sea ice between the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the Arctic nations, affecting the risk of ice-rafted contamination. We apply the Lagrangian Ice Tracking System (LITS) to identify sea-ice formation events and track sea ice to its melt locations. Most ice (52%) melts within 100 km of where it is formed; ca. 21% escapes from its EEZ. Thus, most contaminants will be released within an ice parcel's originating EEZ, while material carried by over 1 00,000 km2 of ice—an area larger than France and Germany combined—will be released to other nations' waters. Between the periods 1988–1999 and 2000–2014, sea-ice formation increased by ∼17% (roughly 6 million km2 vs. 5 million km2 annually). Melting peaks earlier; freeze-up begins later; and the central Arctic Ocean is more prominent in both formation and melt in the later period. The total area of ice transported between EEZs increased, while transit times decreased: for example, Russian ice reached melt locations in other nations' EEZs an average of 46% faster while North American ice reached destinations in Eurasian waters an average of 37% faster. Increased trans-border exchange is mainly a result of increased speed (∼14% per decade), allowing first-year ice to escape the summer melt front, even as the front extends further north. Increased trans-border exchange over shorter times is bringing the EEZs of the Arctic nations closer together, which should be taken into account in policy development—including establishment of marine-protected areas. Plain Language Summary We use data from satellite images to identify the formation, drift tracks, and melt locations of sea ice in the Arctic. Most ice melts locally: only about 21% is exported from the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in which it is formed. That export is nonetheless about 1,000,000 km2 each year. As the ice cover has thinned and the summer sea ice has retreated in a warming Arctic, formation and melt locations have moved further north, ice drifts have accelerated, and the area of ice formation and melt has increased. We looked at ice formation and transport between the EEZs of the Arctic nations, and broke the record into two periods: 1988–1999 and 2000–2014. As the Arctic warms, more ice is transported between EEZs and it is arriving at the receiving EEZ faster, than in the past. Between the two study periods: Sea ice velocity increased by about 14%/decade; Russian ice reached melt locations in other nations' EEZs 46% faster; and North American ice reached Eurasian destinations 37% faster. Exchanges of ice have increased as a result. For example, export of ice from Russia to Norway increased by 11% and export from Alaska to Russia by 16%.

Academic enterprises seeking to support society’s efforts to achieve global sustainability need to change their legacy reward systems. We need new structures to foster knowledge that is deeply integrated across disciplines and co-produced with non-academic stakeholders.

The patterns of sea ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean are investigated using two global climate models (GCMs) that have profound differences in their large-scale mean winter atmospheric circulation and sea ice drift patterns. The Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble (CESM-LE) presents a mean sea level pressure pattern that is in general agreement with observations for the late twentieth century. The Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4), exhibits a low bias in its mean sea level pressure over the Arctic region with a deeper Icelandic low. A dynamical mechanism is presented in which large-scale mean winter atmospheric circulation has significant effect on the following September sea ice extent anomaly by influencing ice divergence in specific areas. A Lagrangian model is used to backtrack the 80°N line from the approximate time of the melt onset to its prior positions throughout the previous winter and quantify the divergence across the Pacific and Eurasian sectors of the Arctic. It is found that CCSM4 simulates more sea ice divergence in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and less divergence in the Eurasian seas when compared to CESM-LE, leading to a Pacific-centric sea ice retreat. On the other hand, CESM-LE shows a more symmetrical retreat between the Pacific, Eurasian, and Atlantic sectors of the Arctic. Given that a positive trend in the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index, associated with low sea level pressure anomalies in the Arctic, is a robust feature of GCMs participating in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), these results suggest that the sea ice retreat in the Pacific sector could be amplified during the transition to a seasonal ice cover.

Recent trends and climate models suggest that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is likely to be lost before climate interventions can stabilize it. There are environmental, socioeconomic, and sociocultural arguments for, but also against, restoring and sustaining current conditions. Even if global warming can be reversed, some people will experience ice-free summers before perennial sea ice begins to return. We ask: How will future generations feel about bringing sea ice back where they have not experienced it before? How will conflicted interests in ice-covered vs. ice-free conditions be resolved? What role will science play in these debates?

Fewer than one in four Americans (23%) are currently in a formal educational setting—a school, college, or university (U.S. Census 2018). Many of the 77% who are not in school, have a distorted view of the Polar Regions—literally distorted as the typical Mercator projection stretches Antarctica into an enormous white band in the south, and Greenland looks larger than Africa in the north. As recently as 2008, climate change was not typically part of K-12 curriculum (Kastens and Turrin 2008). The greatest strides have been accomplished with the 2013 introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards and the inclusion of climate change in their Disciplinary Core Ideas for instruction (NGSS 2013), but this occurred well after most Americans graduated and NGSS has not been fully adopted by all 50 states. Taken together, these factors call for creative methods for delivering both polar and climate education to the broader public.

“Facilitating Interdisciplinary Scholars,” by Stephanie Pfirman and Paula J. S. Martin, explores approaches to interdisciplinary scholarship with comparison to disciplinary traditions in higher education. The authors investigate the particular challenges of interdisciplinary research, teaching, and service for scholars throughout different mileposts in a scholarly career. Ideas to support interdisciplinary faculty are presented, from the creation of the position, to the point of hire, and through a career timeline to tenure and posttenure review. As many institutions have barriers for scholars working between departments, frameworks to foster interdisciplinary collaboration are discussed. Special challenges in interdisciplinary scholarly productivity, scholarly recognition, evaluation, promotion, and funding are examined.

Ice-rafted sediments of Eurasian and North American origin are found consistently in the upper part (13 Ma BP to present) of the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) ocean core from the Lomonosov Ridge, near the North Pole (≈88° N). Based on modern sea-ice drift trajectories and speeds, this has been taken as evidence of the presence of a perennial sea-ice cover in the Arctic Ocean from the middle Miocene onwards (Krylov et al. 2008 Paleoceanography 23, PA1S06. ( doi:10.1029/2007PA001497 ); Darby 2008 Paleoceanography 23, PA1S07. ( doi:10.1029/2007PA001479 )). However, other high latitude land and marine records indicate a long-term trend towards cooling broken by periods of extensive warming suggestive of a seasonally ice-free Arctic between the Miocene and the present (Polyak et al. 2010 Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1757–1778. ( doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.02.010 )). We use a coupled sea-ice slab-ocean model including sediment transport tracers to map the spatial distribution of ice-rafted deposits in the Arctic Ocean. We use 6 hourly wind forcing and surface heat fluxes for two different climates: one with a perennial sea-ice cover similar to that of the present day and one with seasonally ice-free conditions, similar to that simulated in future projections. Model results confirm that in the present-day climate, sea ice takes more than 1 year to transport sediment from all its peripheral seas to the North Pole. However, in a warmer climate, sea-ice speeds are significantly faster (for the same wind forcing) and can deposit sediments of Laptev, East Siberian and perhaps also Beaufort Sea origin at the North Pole. This is primarily because of the fact that sea-ice interactions are much weaker with a thinner ice cover and there is less resistance to drift. We conclude that the presence of ice-rafted sediment of Eurasian and North American origin at the North Pole does not imply a perennial sea-ice cover in the Arctic Ocean, reconciling the ACEX ocean core data with other land and marine records.