The Greenland Ice Sheet is a major contributor to global sea level rise, driven by both increased melting and dynamic ice discharge into the ocean. While often treated separately, these processes are interconnected because when surface meltwater flows into crevasses—cracks on the ice sheet surface—they can hydrofracture through the entire ice sheet and reach the bed. Once surface meltwater reaches the ice-bedrock interface it can modulate subglacial water pressures, the structure of the subglacial drainage system, and influence ice dynamics.

In this talk, Jessica will focus on recent work understanding these hydraulic connections. First, she will discuss how far inland these hydraulic connections can extend into the ice sheet’s interior using coupled observational, remote sensing, and modeling applied to the firn aquifer on Helheim Glacier in southeast Greenland. Next, she will discuss in situ observations of crevasse opening and what it means for firn aquifer drainage. Finally, Jessica will discuss some modeling work applied to rapid hydraulically driven fracture propagation from the fast drainage of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Indigenous understanding of sustainability is embedded in close relations to land and environment, Indigenous Knowledge systems, Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, and Indigenous languages. However, the sustainability of Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods is significantly affected by various global change drivers. In the Arctic, Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods are impacted by environmental, social, and cultural changes, including climate change, environmental pollution, economic processes, and resource extraction. This presentation aims to review and synthesize recent academic and gray literature on the sustainability of Indigenous communities in Sakha Republic, Northeast Siberia, Russia in the face of global change with a particular focus on land- and water-based traditional activities, native language, and the Indigenous Knowledge system.

This presentation discusses the findings of our research relating to changes in food security and food lifeways due to climatic and socioeconomic change in Alaska. For many decades, many researchers have collaborated with Indigenous communities and scholars from various disciplines to learn about culture change from multiple perspectives. Food security topics in this presentation include relationships with humans and with non-humans, harvesting skills, sharing and storing food, Indigenous knowledge of the land, and how northern communities have maintained their lifeways while adapting to these changes wrought by colonialism and other factors of globalization.

Working in partnership with Alaska Native communities, researchers have recognized the importance of local knowledge and voices that need to be taken into consideration alongside scientific data. Scientists traditionally have not used oral history data because it lacks systematic written records. However, many projects in Alaska and elsewhere show that Elders’ and other knowledge-bearers’ oral traditions have provided multi-generational knowledge regarding changes in landscapes, weather, and economy that is crucial for research.

The presentation will demonstrate that engaging with communities has encouraged the partnering community to identify and pursue their own goals for a project, thus enhancing interest. Local knowledge-bearers and other leaders can ensure that their community will benefit from academic research by ensuring a focus on community needs and well-being. Researchers can thus reciprocate with their community partners while also conducting academic research. Michael and Yoko will also present contact and negotiation methods for collaborating with communities, their ethical conduct of ethnographic fieldwork to gain local perspectives, and their continuing work alongside communities as partners in research.

This webinar explores some of the more fascinating sounds happening in the region of Beringia - from the extraordinary communications of Bowhead whales to Buryat throat and overtone singing - by way of some of the latest cultural and scientific research and oral histories. This research is the subject of an upcoming documentary (in production by the presenters Yaari and Chris) that seeks to spotlight the Beringia region - its cultures (human and nonhuman), ecology, and environmental history - as a powerful and evocative force in the world.

Join Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon, Iñupiaq, as she shares her learning from the Inuit people in Greenland and the Ninilchik Village Tribe in Alaska. This talk addresses building relationships with Indigenous Nations for their leadership in nurturing and stewarding the land through Indigenous Knowledge. A report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found lands nurtured by Indigenous Peoples experience less species and ecosystems decline than other areas, yet in Alaska, Indigenous perspectives are rarely included in management. Heather discusses current land ownership and management practices in Alaska and how these differ from Indigenous approaches. She also addresses why the Indigenous approach is so different and what policies and laws can change to make sure the waters and lands are healthy and able to support generations in the future.

We examined recent shipping trends and assessed their impact on Arctic environments and communities. We conclude that greater international co-ordination is needed to learn from experience, to share assets and capacities, and to guide responsible and sustainable development of Arctic shipping. Given the possibility for opening of the Transpolar Sea Route within the coming decades, further proactive steps, such as developing a governance framework, could help Arctic shipping avoid rather than attempt to correct problems.

Informal roads are an inevitable part of human presence in landscapes and serve as a means of transportation and communication. They are used for subsistence, resource exploration and extraction, and for connectivity. However, in fragile Arctic and Sub-Arctic landscapes, the rapid development of these roads indicates uncontrolled extractive development, landscape fragmentation, and other environmental and societal disturbances. Therefore, these roads provide an important perspective for measuring sustainability of social-ecological systems. In this presentation, Vera Kuklina summarizes the results of a three-year NSF-funded project and highlights lessons learned from long-term collaboration with local and Indigenous communities in Siberian taiga of Baikal region. The project utilized a combination of social, environmental, and remote sensing methods. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the studies of infrastructure patterns, creation, use, maintenance, and abandonment can be relevant for understanding human-environment relations in the Arctic and beyond.

Climate change poses sufficient risk for nation-states and residents throughout the Arctic to warrant potentially radical geoengineering solutions. Current geoengineering solutions are in the early stages of testing and development. Due to the scale of deployments necessary to enact substantial change, and their preliminary nature, these methods are likely to result in unforeseen consequences. The Arctic is an area that is experiencing rapid change, increased development, and exploratory interest, and proposed solutions have the potential to produce new risks to both natural and human systems. This talk explores potential security and ethical considerations of geoengineering solutions in the Arctic and the need for proactive and preemptive frameworks at the international level, while leveraging unique structures already present in Arctic governance.

Join Corina Qaaġraq Kramer and Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, Iñupiaq sister-collaborators from Kotzebue, Alaska, as they delve into three crucial elements of equitable Arctic research. In their presentation, they will explore practical strategies that can be applied to your work prior to, during, and after conducting research in collaboration with Arctic Indigenous communities. Drawing upon the valuable insights outlined in their recently published handbook, Equitable Arctic Research: A Guide for Innovation, Corina and Cana will demonstrate the ongoing relevance of equity throughout the research process. By embracing these strategies, you will be empowered to foster innovative and sustainable projects, while cultivating meaningful relationships with the Arctic Indigenous communities you collaborate with.

Climate change, biological invasions, and anthropogenic disturbance pose significant threats to Arctic freshwater biodiversity. Information gaps and insufficient knowledge about current biodiversity limit our ability to determine patterns or trends over space and time. Recently, a group of international scientists collaborated to compile and analyze data from streams and lakes in the circumpolar Arctic – producing the first assessment of the state of Arctic freshwater biodiversity. Fish species presence/absence data were used to evaluate patterns of diversity at local, regional, and circumpolar scales. Within North America, fish diversity patterns were evaluated for congruence with environmental factors. Circumpolar patterns of fish species diversity varied with latitude, hydrologic isolation, and ecoregion characteristics. Only one species, Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus, occurred above 71 degrees N latitude, but local scale Arctic diversity peaked at 70 degrees N, which was evident across the circumpolar north and in North America. High latitude diversity appears to be supported by the presence of anadromy in coastal systems and areas unaffected by the last glaciation (180k BP). Reduced richness above 71 degrees N resulted primarily from physical isolation of freshwater habitats and allowing colonization only by migratory anadromous species. At lower latitudes, coarse ecoregion characteristics, like elevation, contributed to overall diversity patterns, with fewer species in mountainous regions compared to adjacent lowland areas. These large-scale assessments are the first steps in determining circumpolar freshwater diversity patterns; however, this study also highlights the significant gaps in data coverage and our current limited ability to detect change. Inclusion of archived and new data – on fishes and their environment – will allow for studies to test change in observed patterns of biodiversity.

Increasingly, Inuit are faced with climate change, resource development, research, wildlife management, and a host of other issues and related discussions. Inuit hold solutions for how to address these challenges and proven sustainable holistic approaches to having a balanced relationship within the Arctic. At the international level, these topics as well as threats to biodiversity, shipping, and other adverse impacts to food security are constantly present. Yet Inuit communities and Knowledge have not been considered equitably. For years, Inuit have raised concerns about the top-down approaches often used by international organizations, researchers, and decision- and policymakers. More recently and because of Indigenous Peoples advocacy, the recognition of Indigenous Knowledge and the need for partnerships, is gaining consideration.

To achieve approaches that are equitable, approaches that respect and recognize Indigenous Knowledge, a paradigm shifts in how work is being done, how decisions are being made, and how policy is developed must take place. We need true equitable and ethical approaches. The 2018 Utqiagvik Declaration mandated ICC to facilitate the development of Equitable and Ethical protocols to aid in this paradigm shift. In June of this year, ICC released the “Circumpolar Inuit Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement” – or EEE Protocols. The EEE Protocols are the result of many years of work and specifically over the past three years, Inuit from across Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka have worked together to create this document.

This webinar will share the process of developing the EEE Protocols, the Protocols, and welcome a discussion about how you, the attendees, can implement the EEE Protocols.

The Arctic is undergoing large-scale accelerating changes including the introduction and expansion of invasive species. We are in a unique position to prevent new introductions and spread of existing invaders by adopting policies and actions aimed at prevention, early detection, and rapid response to minimize impacts on ecosystems, communities, food security, and northern economies. But resource managers often face decisions without having adequate data and resources at hand. Community science presents one way to fill knowledge gaps and inform decisions. This presentation will showcase examples related to freshwater aquatic invasive species management in Alaska aimed at understanding the long-distance pathways, human-induced spread, and informing agency prioritization with applied economics. Implications for Arctic conservation policy and future research needs will be discussed.

For 30 years (1992-2021) Denver and colleagues have been studying the breeding ecology of Snowy Owls at Utqiaġvik, Alaska. It is the longest continuous breeding study in the world, and conducted by the same researcher. They have studied 284 nests and banded ~800 owls, mostly nestlings.

Researchers have recorded >43,600 prey from pellets, and >3,300 prey cached at nests, of which >2,500 have been lemmings. For lemming carcass cached at nests, they recorded sex, body mass, relative age, and reproductive status.

Researchers have also monitored lemming population fluctuations through snap-trap methods. Over 30 years, more than 3,600 lemmings have been snap-trapped. They have recorded; sex, body mass, relative age, reproductive status, embryo counts, parasites, infectious diseases, and so forth. Although population fluctuations do exist, predictable cycles in the strictest definition of the word do not.

Additionally, researchers attached the first satellite transmitters to Snowy Owl in the world, recorded nest site characteristics, established genetic markers for estimating population, conducted hormone research in relation to pre-fledging nest departure of young, conducted growth rates and plumage development studies, and behavioral studies. Additionally, they have conducted an entire review their world ecology and population estimates.

Snowy Owl nesting numbers at Utqiaġvik have been declining since about 2009. Reasons are not known but climate change is suspected.

However, alternative questions for this decline do exist. For example, did the ~10 years of killing Arctic foxes to protect the threatened Steller’s Eider disrupt the entire ecosystem around Utqiaġvik? Do Brown and Collared lemmings and Arctic Fox have a relationship that benefits all three species? Did the removal of Arctic fox increase White-fronted, Brandt, and Snow goose numbers? And, in turn does the grazing impact on tundra plants, compete with lemmings, and reduce forage quality, quantity and ground cover, important for lemming survival?

These questions will be addressed in future analysis.

The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) data on global lightning are used to investigate the increase of total lightning strokes at Arctic latitudes. We use the summertime data from June, July, and August (JJA) which average >200,000 strokes each year above 65oN for the years 2010 – 2020. We minimize the possible influence of WWLLN network detection efficiency increases by normalizing our results to the total global strokes during northern summer each year.

The ratio of strokes occurring above a given latitude, compared to total global strokes, increases with time, indicating that the Arctic is becoming more influenced by lightning. We compare the increasing fraction of strokes with the NOAA global temperature anomaly, and find that the fraction of strokes above 65oN to total global strokes increases linearly with the temperature anomaly, and grew by a factor of three as the anomaly increased from 0.65 to 0.95 degrees C.

The configuration of any monitoring system depends on the major goals and purpose of monitoring and the reason for what the data of this monitoring will be used. The Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) monitoring system was initiated by the United State Geological Survey (USGS) in the 1940s and 1950s as a set of ground temperature observations in a number of deep (200 to 1000 m) boreholes. The main reason for these measurements originally was the investigation of the geothermal conditions in Alaska. However, in the 1970s and in the beginning of the 1980s, the interpretation of the obtained data showed that a significant warming in the upper part (20 to 50 m) of many boreholes has occurred during the mid-20th century (Art Lachenbruch and Max Brewer with colleagues).

About this time, another TSP monitoring system was established in Alaska by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) under supervision of Prof. Emeritus T.E. Osterkamp. Since then, these two monitoring systems are the most active and most productive in terms of TSP data collecting and interpretation.

The goal of this monitoring was to use the records of permafrost temperature in relatively deep boreholes as an indicator of Climate Change. Later, with further development of the monitoring systems and with the addition of the number of monitored parameters (meteorological data, snow depth, shallow ground temperature and moisture content measurements, occasional description of vegetation, etc.), the main goal of monitoring started to shift to the use of permafrost and active layer characteristics as an indicator of changes in the entire Arctic System.

In more recent times, the goals of the STP monitoring system in Alaska are evolving into not only to monitor but also to predict the changes in permafrost characteristics and the ground temperature regime in the near and more distant future and how these changes will impact climate, arctic hydrology, ecosystems, and infrastructure.

Historically, moving from one task to the next required further and often substantial changes in the observing system: 1) more and more additional measured parameters have been added; 2) higher and higher temporal (continuous vs. one-time measurements) and spatial (number of observing stations and their geographical distribution) resolution of observations and modeling were required.

As a result, the TSP monitoring system in Alaska is getting more and more complex, more distributed and, as a result, more difficult to access, more and more expensive, and more and more efforts and resources are required to support this system.

During the presentation, some examples of the results of this monitoring system obtained at each stage of its development will be presented. Dr. Romanovsky will be talking only about the ground-based observation system. The use of remote sensing observations will be mentioned only briefly.

The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is a network of 230 universities, colleges, research institutes, and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the North. UArctic builds and strengthens collective resources and infrastructures that enable member institutions to better serve their constituents and their regions. The tools for joint research and research-based education are Thematic Networks. Thematic networks are theme-based international and diverse groups of individuals and organizations who create opportunities for students, conduct joint research, and share knowledge on topical Arctic issues.

In this presentation Dr. Latola will talk about UArctic’s Thematic Networks, how they are endorsed, how they function, and the different pathways that individual researchers and institutions can take to participate in them. She will show examples of Thematic Network joint activities, and will also briefly share news on the next UArctic Congress 2022, which will be held in Moscow in October 2022.

The Arctic Ocean is changing faster than any other ocean region in the world. Uptake of anthropogenic carbon, amplified warming, sea ice reduction, coastal erosion, and enhanced riverine runoff are driving important changes in the Arctic Ocean ecosystems through changes in primary production and ocean acidification. However, the current understanding of primary production and ocean acidification in the Arctic remains highly uncertain. Furthermore, projections of both processes by Earth-System Models diverge strongly in this region.

During this webinar, Dr. Terhaar will present: (1) a modelling study that quantifies the impact of terrigenous nutrients from rivers and coastal erosions on Arctic Ocean primary production, a process that was (wrongly?) neglected so far, and (2) results from two studies on emergent constraint on ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean that suggests that projections of Earth-System Models collectively underestimated the extent of future ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean is experiencing rapid and dramatic changes in response to climate-driven warming. Many organisms may spread northward as a result of rising temperatures and loss of sea ice, but few present such significant threats to human and ecosystem health as harmful algal bloom (HAB) species. Alexandrium catenella, a producer of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), has a long history of causing toxicity in the Gulf of Alaska, yet there is little recognition of this organism as a human health concern north of Bering Strait. Here we describe an exceptionally large A. catenella benthic cyst bed and hydrographic conditions across the Chukchi Sea that support germination and development of recurrent, self-initiating, and self-seeding blooms. Two prominent cyst accumulation zones result from deposition promoted by weak circulation. Cyst concentrations are among the highest reported globally for this species and the cyst bed is 6X larger in area than any other recorded. These extraordinary accumulations are attributed to repeated inputs from advected southern blooms and to localized cyst formation and deposition. Over the last two decades, warming has likely increased the magnitude of the germination flux two-fold and advanced the inoculation of the euphotic zone, where conditions are now favorable for bloom development, by 20 days. The region is poised to support recurrent blooms that are unprecedented in scale, increasing exposure and health risks to Alaskan Arctic communities where economies are subsistence based. These observations also highlight how warming can facilitate HAB range expansions into waters where temperatures were formerly too cold.

This presentation will provide an introduction to the history of human settlement in northern Alaska as represented in archaeological resources and Inuit oral histories. Following the historical introduction, Sikuaq will focus on one piece of ingenious technology developed exclusively in the Arctic thousands of years ago, the toggling harpoon head. To this day, the toggling harpoon head is an extremely important piece of technology used by all Inuit hunters to retrieve large marine mammals (e.g. walrus, seals, whales, etc.) that would otherwise sink to the bottom of the ocean. Utilizing miniature fully-functional replica ivory harpoons and bananas (to replicate the marine mammal skin and blubber), Sikuaq will demonstrate how the harpoon works and why it is so unique and effective. This activity has been developed at UIC Science and has been shared with dozens of classrooms across Alaska.

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid change, and long-lived top predators are considered sentinels of the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Beaufort Sea beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) and thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia) in northern Hudson Bay have experienced long-term shifts in prey species and declines in inferred growth rates, believed to be the result of environmental changes. In partnership with Inuvialuit communities, we examined inter-annual variation and environmental factors affecting prey, body condition, and physiology of Beaufort Sea beluga whales. The estimated proportional contributions of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) to beluga diet decreased from 2011 to 2014, coinciding with an increase in capelin (Mallotus villosus). Belugas consumed the highest proportions of capelin and the lowest proportions of cod in 2014. Body condition of whales was positively correlated with myoglobin, hemoglobin concentrations, and % hematocrit, resulting in lower total body oxygen stores in whales with lower body condition. The relationship between body condition and oxygen storage capacity may represent a positive feedback mechanism, in which environmental changes resulting in decreased body condition impair foraging ability. To examine the impacts of climate-induced prey shifts on the energetics of seabirds, heart rate was examined as a proxy for O² consumption in murres and black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), and were calibrated with GPS-accelerometers to classify behaviours and activity rate. Finally, we examined the effects of Arctic warming on murre physiology. In response to increasing temperatures, murres exhibited limited heat tolerance and low ability to dissipate heat, with one of the lowest evaporative cooling efficiencies recorded in birds. These results highlight the various impacts of climate change on marine predators and their broader implications on Arctic ecosystems.

Data from animal-borne sensors offer a growing source of global remote sensing monitoring data. Combining these data allows ecologists answer questions about biodiversity and long-term, large-scale patterns in animal behavior in relation to changing environments. The Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA) is a collaborative and growing collection of over 200 terrestrial, avian and marine animal tracking studies from the Arctic and Subarctic, documenting over 15 million location observations and other sensor measurements of over 8,000 animals of 96 species. The AAMA is hosted on Movebank, a global research platform for bio-logging data. Movebak includes the EnvDATA toolpack - a library of research tools that link movement data with many NASA remote sensing products, and weather reanalysis models’ weather data products. Through the AAMA, data collected by hundreds of institutions is stored in a standard format and can be accessed publicly or upon request. Support for controlled-access data is critical to integrating wildlife monitoring data that cannot be shared publicly due to legal restrictions or conservation status, and to allow sharing of near-real-time data as they are being transmitted.

In four case studies demonstrating the utility of this new archive, we gained preliminary insight into the climate change response of arctic animals by annotating long-term and large-scale movement data and demographic events locations and times with environmental data from remote sensing. In golden eagles, we identified the environmental drivers of long-term trends in the onset date of arrival to summering grounds. We found that parturition date (date of giving birth) in caribou is showing the most rapid change in northern populations. We found a strong movement responses to within-season maximum temperatures with opposite directions in wolves and caribou vs. moose. Finally, as a test of the tag technology, we validated tag-borne temperature observations, against ECMWF modelled temperature estimates.

As climate change and human disturbance increasingly alter the Arctic, the AAMA offers a 30-year data record that can serve as a baseline for documenting whether and how animals respond, and to recognize early signals of local or large-scale Arctic ecosystem changes.

The ice arches that usually develop at the northern and southern ends of Nares Strait play an important role in modulating the export of multi-year sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean. As a result of global warming, the Arctic Ocean is evolving towards an ice pack that is younger, thinner and more mobile and the fate of its multi-year ice is becoming of increasing interest to both the scientific and policy communities. Here, we use sea ice motion retrievals derived from Sentinel-1 imagery to report on recent behavior of these ice arches and the associated ice flux. In addition to the previously identified early collapse of the northern ice arch in May 2017, we report that this arch failed to develop during the winters of 2018 and 2019. In contrast, we report that the southern ice arch was only present for a short period of time during the winter of 2018 as well as for a more extended period during the winter of 2020. We also show that the duration of arch formation has decreased over the past 20 years as ice in the region has thinned, while the ice area and volume fluxes have both increased. These results suggest that a transition is underway towards a state where the formation of these arches will become atypical with a concomitant increase in the export of multi-year ice accelerating the transition towards a younger and thinner Arctic ice pack.

This seminar will be presented by Matthew Burtner (University of Virginia), Leena Cho (University of Virginia), and Gabrielle Russomagno (School of Visual Arts). During this webinar presenters will discuss how their work spans science and the arts through media such as music, landscape architecture, and the visual arts.

Speaker Abstracts:

Matthew will share how he uses sound as a medium between music and science in Arctic coastal ecosystems. Ecoacoustic music utilizes sonification, field recording and environmental materials to imbed natural systems into music. He will discuss the methodology and show examples of these techniques in his work.

By merging the study of environmental humanities, and science and technology studies with landscape architecture, Leena will highlight the Arctic ground’s vibrant materialities as a conceptual and physical basis for design, while delineating potential areas of landscape design research and collaboration to further examine design potentials unique to the Arctic’s built environment. Permafrost ground is one of the defining landscape elements in the Arctic, and is a foundation for dynamic socioecological and cultural expressions in Arctic cities.

Gabrielle will discuss A Quick and Tragic Thaw, a series of artworks that explores the impact of a warming world using the arctic region as the symbolic apex. Through the study of scholarly research and data, use of mapping technology and satellite imagery, as well as essays, poems, photographs and illustrations, these artworks interpret the more recent story of human influenced climate change. More broadly, this urgent narration recognizes migration movements of biological forms, toxins, and water and is meant to be a meditation on loss and the fragility of the planet.

Arctic lands and seas have experienced dramatic environmental and climatic changes in recent decades, and the pace of change is expected to accelerate in the future. Beginning in the early 1980s, a constellation of Earth-observing satellites has provided a unique vantage point for observing the remote and dynamic Arctic tundra biome—the treeless environment encircling most of the Arctic Ocean. The satellite record shows that the productivity of tundra vegetation has increased since the late 20th century, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “the greening of the Arctic.” Trends in tundra productivity, however, have not been uniform in direction or magnitude across the circumpolar region and there has been substantial variability from year to year. This variability arises from a web of complex interactions that link the vegetation, atmosphere, sea-ice, seasonal snow cover, ground (soils, permafrost, and topography), and animals of the Arctic system. In this talk I will begin with an overview of the tundra biome and address the questions: what are the drivers of Arctic vegetation change? What types of change would be apparent to an observer on the ground? And, what are the consequences of these changes for Arctic residents and the rest of the globe? Frost will explore these questions through the lens of the satellite record, field studies, and the rich knowledge-base of Arctic residents to understand the drivers and impacts of ecological change in the Arctic tundra biome.

The rapid decline of summer sea ice cover in the Western Arctic has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the sea state of the region. Ocean waves are now more common throughout the region, including multiple energetic swell events each summer. These waves interact with the sea ice and help to both form and define the expanding Marginal Ice Zone of the Western Arctic. This seminar will review recent work to observe and forecast changes in the Arctic sea state, including implications for sea ice retreat and coastal morphology.