Which region is most associated with climate change impacts on Arctic sea ice?

• A. Arctic
• B. Atlantic coast
• C. Prairie region
• D. Great Lakes region

Answer: (A)

Arctic sea ice is one of the clearest signs of climate change because the polar region is warming faster than elsewhere. In the Arctic, rising air and ocean temperatures thin and shrink sea ice each year, so the extent and duration of ice cover decline. A key driver is Arctic amplification: as ice melts, darker ocean water absorbs more sunlight, which warms the water even more and speeds up further melting. Since sea ice forms and exists in the Arctic, changes to it are most strongly linked to climate-change effects there. The other regions listed experience climate-change impacts in different ways—coastal storms along the Atlantic, drought and heat in the Prairie, or changes to winter lake ice in the Great Lakes—but they do not encompass the Arctic sea ice itself. So the Arctic is the region most associated with climate-change impacts on Arctic sea ice.