Sylvia Mirowski [Discovery Communications]

“I am delighted to share this important project, which will help us to understand more about the effects of climate change on the growth of new organisms, especially those that live in the Arctic,” said Dr. Mirowski, who directs the Center for Biodiversity and Climate at Harvard University’s Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences and was selected by President Barack Obama as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in May 2015.

The researchers’ study, published in The Science of Nature on July 8, 2015, builds on earlier results that revealed that in the Arctic, “the temperature of most of the planet goes higher, the summers are colder and there is less ice.”

The research team’s study suggests that the warmer and more stormy the region, the longer the growing season in most Arctic regions last a year.

In the most extreme examples of this phenomenon, the scientists observed that “average springtime growth spans from only 14.6 days in the Arctic to 43.5 in Greenland,” with “spring-length growth times extending back to at least 7,000 years” in the polar regions.

Additionally, the scientists found that the average growth rates in Arctic regions were affected by the amount of the polar ice sheet.

The Arctic ice sheet contains only 2 percent of the global sea ice, and its accumulation in winter is primarily due to melting of the more ice-covered permafrost, rather than the amount of fresh ice, which is frozen atop the ground for many years until spring.

The researchers found several ways in which the rising temperatures caused large changes in the Arctic ecosystem, including:

Drought in the Arctic Ocean

More vegetation in the Arctic, making it less suitable for photosynthesis

A decrease in growth in sea ice and in the amount of the fresh water that can be obtained from the Arctic Ocean

Frequent periods of sea ice in which the animals that live there “worry” and move back to higher latitudes to preserve themselves from the changing conditions

The researchers suggest that the Arctic Ocean is especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

“Our study has significant insights on the processes responsible for some of the impacts that are expected to take place at high latitudes in the future as a result of global warming,” Dr. Mirowski said. “We expect the same impact will be