Eldevik, T., Smedsrud, L.H., Li, C., Årthun, M., Madonna, E., Svendsen, L. 2020: The Arctic Mediterranean. In: Mechoso (Ed.). Interacting Climates of Ocean Basins Observations, Mechanisms, Predictability, and Impacts. Cambridge University Press, 2020, 186-215 . https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108610995.007 .
Summary: The Arctic Mediterranean sits on the “top of the world” and connects the Atlantic and Pacific climate realms via the cold Arctic. It is the combined basin of the Nordic Seas (the Norwegian, Iceland, and Greenland seas) and the Arctic Ocean confined by the Arctic land masses – thus making it a Mediterranean ocean (Figure 6.1; e.g., Aagaard et al., 1985). The Arctic Mediterranean is small for a World Ocean but its heat loss and freshwater uptake is disproportionally large (e.g., Ganachaud and Wunsch, 2000; Eldevik and Nilsen, 2013; Haine et al., 2015). With the combined presence of the Gulf Stream’s northern limb, regional freshwater stratification, and a retreating sea-ice cover, it is likely where water mass contrasts, shifting air-ocean-ice interaction, and climate change are most pronounced in the present world oceans (Stocker et al., 2013; Vihma, 2014).

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