A research plane is used to survey the extent of melting among glaciers in the mountains of Alaska

A research group at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole is studying the large rivers which run northwards into the Arctic Ocean from Russia. They contribute two thirds of all the freshwater that flows into the Ocean. Using river discharge records that reach back to the 1930s, the researchers have found that the Russian Arctic rivers have significantly increased their flow rates in recent decades -- the result of the higher precipitation that goes along with global warming.

A research group at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks has been intensively studying the large glaciers in the mountain region that runs between southern Alaska and Canada. The glaciers have been melting and receding at an increasing pace, also in recent decades. In a warming planet, ice is also on the move in Antarctica and Greenland.

It's not yet known what the relative contributions are of increased rivers flows, or melting glaciers, to the overall freshening of the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas.