Children play at the beach in front of Qaanaaq in early summer, shortly after the sea ice has broken away. Photo credit: Saki Daorana
The Circle issue 2, 2026
News in brief
A “North-to-North” project
A new “North-to-North” initiative is bringing Arctic communities together to strengthen resilience in the face of rapid environmental and social change. Running until March 2027, the project—whose official title is Enhancing Northern Connectivity: North-to-North Cooperation for Community Preparedness and Resilience—connects municipalities, Indigenous organizations, researchers and community leaders across the Arctic to share knowledge and practical solutions.
The focus is on how communities can better respond to disruptions like climate change impacts, infrastructure challenges, and shifting local economies. Rather than relying on top-down approaches, the initiative emphasizes cooperation at the community level, where lived experience and local knowledge can guide more effective responses. Participants exchange strategies, test approaches and adapt solutions to local conditions.
North-to-North is funded under the Nordic Arctic Programme, an initiative of the Nordic Council of Ministers, and implemented by a range of partners. As the official intergovernmental cooperation body for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the council supports Arctic cooperation.
The approach reflects a broader shift in Arctic policy toward collaboration, knowledge-sharing and locally grounded action—recognizing that resilience is not just about protecting infrastructure, but also about building strong, connected communities.
Ship tracking systems underestimate the impacts of human activity in Arctic waters because many sounds come from small or untracked vessels. Photo credit: Peter Prokosch, www.grida.no/resources/4150
Arctic Ocean louder and more varied than thought
New research is challenging long held assumptions about how quiet the Arctic Ocean really is. A study published in npj Acoustics analyzed nearly a decade of underwater recordings from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, in Canada’s Arctic. It found that the region’s soundscape is far more diverse—and more heavily influenced by human activity—than current monitoring methods pick up.
Existing guidelines for measuring underwater noise in other parts of the world focus on a narrow set of low frequency bands. But the research team found that ship noise extends well beyond those ranges. In summer, vessel noise reaches into higher frequencies that overlap with the hearing ranges of some marine mammals, particularly species such as beluga and narwhal.
Winter recordings revealed something else: even when the ocean is frozen, snowmobiles, aircraft and community machinery contribute significant noise, creating a year round acoustic footprint. The researchers also found that many sounds come from small or untracked vessels. This means satellite based ship tracking systems underestimate the impacts of human activity in Arctic waters.
The findings suggest that Arctic-specific noise guidelines are needed, given that existing guidance—largely developed for temperate regions—does not reflect the realities of a rapidly changing Arctic. As sea ice thins and shipping seasons lengthen, a broader approach to acoustic monitoring may be needed to protect marine life that relies on sound to communicate, navigate and survive.
How polar bear conservation can influence marine life
Protecting polar bears could help safeguard a much wider web of Arctic marine life. According to new research led by the University of Alberta in Canada, polar bears can act as an “umbrella species,” meaning that conserving the areas they depend on may also help to protect other species that share the same habitat.
Using two decades of tracking data from hundreds of bears in western Hudson Bay, researchers identified key areas where polar bears spend much of their time. These zones overlap with important habitat for seals—the bears’ primary prey—as well as other marine species.
Because polar bears frequent areas where prey are available, protecting these areas may offer broader ecological benefits, although this approach does not account for all species and ecological processes in Arctic marine systems. Polar bears also support other wildlife by leaving behind carcasses that feed scavengers like Arctic foxes, wolves, ravens and gulls.
These findings suggest top predators can shape the Arctic ecosystem and, in practice, could help guide the design of marine protected areas in regions where detailed biodiversity data are often limited. In this way, polar bear data could serve as an objective starting point for conservation planning in areas where other information is scarce.
Arctic sea ice concentration on March 28, 2026. The red line shows the median ice edge for 1981–2010, indicating the extent typically expected at this time of year. Credit: European Union, Copernicus Climate Change Service Data
Arctic sea ice hits a new record low
Arctic sea ice has plunged to yet another record low, underscoring how quickly the region is transforming. According to new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service—the EU programme that tracks global climate indicators—winter sea ice extent in March 2026 was among the lowest ever recorded for the month, continuing a decade long trend of sustained loss of winter sea ice.
More detailed measurements from the US-based National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this year’s peak ice cover was roughly 1.3 million square kilometres below the 1981 to 2010 average. Observations show that the losses are concentrated in marginal seas, such as the Barents and Bering seas, where warmer waters and shifting currents are thinning ice from below. Even when winter ice expands, it is forming later, growing more slowly, and ending up thinner and more vulnerable to rapid melt.
Scientists describe the trend as a structural weakening of the Arctic ice system. Experts warn that reversing this decline will require steep cuts to greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions, noting that changes in the Arctic are a clear signal of broader climate instability.
By WWF Global Arctic Programme
