Narwhals are helping scientists map warm water hidden in Greenland’s fjords

Published on Wednesday, The Conversation reports that researchers joined local hunters in eastern Greenland to attach temperature and salinity tags to six narwhals. The animals' deep dives, reaching one thousand five hundred to two thousand metres, produced more than two thousand vertical water‑column records and revealed a relatively warm, salty Atlantic intermediate water layer beneath the surface polar water. The findings indicate that fjords shallower than four hundred metres tend to block this warm water, which can otherwise speed up glacier melt at the ice front. Continued tagging could let scientists spot new warm‑water intrusions and refine forecasts of Greenland’s ice‑sheet response.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton