2026-08-27 コペンハーゲン大学（UCPH）
The upper images show the study area. Each red dot in the lower-left image represents a location where measurements were collected by narwhals between 2017 and 2022. In the image on the right, each blue dot represents a ship-based measurement collected between 1891 and 2022. Photo: Heide-Jørgensen et al. (2026).
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2026/08/narwhals-help-researchers-uncover-unique-data-from-the-deepest-east-greenland-fjords/
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr1424
イッカクが東グリーンランドの大西洋化を記録している Narwhals document atlantification of East Greenland
Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Philippine Chambault, Helle Sørensen, Camilla S. Andresen, […] , and Qingchuan Sun
Science Advances Published:26 Aug 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr1424
Abstract
To resolve temperature and salinity changes in remote East Greenland coastal waters, including deep glacier-front basins, we equipped narwhals (Monodon monoceros) with conductivity-temperature-depth archival instruments. These data, combined with the World Ocean Database, reveal long-term warming of Atlantic Intermediate Water (AIW) penetrating East Greenland’s coastal system. In the Blosseville Basin, AIW dominates below ∼250 meters with little Polar Water influence. From 1960 to 2021, temperatures above 500 meters increased by 0.047°C per year. Atlantification of the Greenland Sea now reaches deep basins in front of marine-terminating glaciers up to 300 kilometers inland. Glaciers in Scoresby Sound and Kangerlussuaq are exposed to significantly warmer and more saline waters than those along the shallower Blosseville Coast. Elevated summer iceberg discharge coincides with higher temperatures and salinities below 200 meters, indicating an intensified AIW influence. These observations show that warming AIW delivers heat directly to glacier fronts, promoting submarine melt and accelerating glacier mass loss.
