| Summary: | Arctic sea ice will decline through the 21st century. This will have great impact on the Arctic ecosystems, hence the region and global climate. We used satellite data to study the temporal and spatial coherence between ice cover (ICE), chlorophyll _a (CHL) (a proxy for algal biomass), aerosol optical depth (AOD) (related to the atmospheric burden of aerosol) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in the Greenland Sea (20° W–10° E, 70°N–80° N) during 2003–2012. The influences of ice cover to CHL, AOD and NAO were determined. In general, the peak of ICE was in March. ICE began to melt until September. The polar front was located in the region 70° N–75° N where ICE was almost totally melted. The region 75° N–80° N was our focus area for the correlation study. ICE, CHL, AOD and NAO were correlated with a time lag. In general, ICE reached a peak 3 months ahead of CHL. When ice started melting, CHL started to increase. The melting ice contributed ice algae for the growth of phytoplankton biomass. ICE had an influence on AOD with a 1 month time lag ahead of AOD. EViews statistical software was used to conduct lag regression analysis and then cointegration analysis was carried out. There was cointegration between CHL and ICE and AOD and ICE, which means that they both had a long-term equilibrium relationship. NAO and melting ice had a positive correlation, melting ice lagged 3 months behind NAO, which explained why NAO had an influence on ICE. CHL and NAO had negative correlations. This research provides a valuable reference for the polar ecosystem and global climate predictions. Faculty of Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology No Full Text
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