Arctic sea ice has experienced a pronounced long-term decline, with particularly strong reductions in the Pacific–Arctic sector, accompanied by substantial decadal variability in the rate of loss. Here we investigate the large-scale drivers of this variability using observational datasets and climate model simulations, with results that are part of a study currently under review in Nature Communications. Our analysis highlights the role of basin-scale ocean–atmosphere coupling in reorganizing heat transport pathways into the Arctic and modulating regional energy exchanges. These processes provide a framework for understanding the non-uniform evolution of sea ice loss, which emerges from the interaction between anthropogenic forcing and internal climate variability on decadal timescales.
1. Jingwei Zhang^*, Wenju Cai^*, Guojian Wang^*, Xichen Li, Agus Santoso, Sang-Wook Yeh, 2026, Arctic Sea Ice Loss Accelerated by Decadal Atlantic-Forced North Pacific Subsurface Ocean Warming, Nature Communications (Under review)