How climate change is flooding the Arctic Ocean with light

This week, two experts explain how melting ice in the far north is bringing more light to the Arctic Ocean and what this means for the species that live there. And we hear from a team of archaeologists on their new research in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge that found evidence of just how adaptable early humans were to the changing environment.

Every summer, the sea ice in the Arctic melts -– but it's melting more and more each year. This dramatic loss is because the Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. Different scientists are studying what climate change means for the various species that live in the Arctic Ocean. One of the things they’re looking at is light: as the sea ice shrinks, that means more light can get down to the depths, but also more ships can venture into the far north, bringing with them more artificial light. 

We speak to two researchers who study what this increase in light means for the species that live in the Arctic: Karen Filbee-Dexter, Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia and Jørgen Berge, Vice Dean for Research, Arctic and Marine Biology at the University of Tromsø in Norway.

In our second story, we head to the warmer climes of the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, known as the birthplace of humanity. We speak to a team of researchers, Julio Mercader, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary in Canada, and Pastory Bushozi, Director of Humanities Research Centre and Makarius Peter Itambu, Lecturer in the College of Humanities, both at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, about their recent discoveries in the gorge. They found new evidence of just how adaptable early humans were to the changing environment around them around 2 million years ago. 

And Laura Hood, politics editor at The Conversation in London, recommends a couple of recent stories by academics in the UK. 

The Conversation Weekly is hosted by Gemma Ware and Dan Merino. The show is co-produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Visit The Conversation for full credits. If you'd like to sign up for The Conversation's free daily newsletter, please subscribe here.

Further reading

• Arctic Ocean: climate change is flooding the remote north with light – and new species, by Jørgen Berge, University of Tromsø; Carlos Duarte, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Dorte Krause-Jensen, Aarhus University; Karen Filbee-Dexter, Université Laval; Kimberly Howland, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), and Philippe Archambault, Université Laval
• Oceans 21: our ongoing series on the state of our oceans featuring academics around the world
• Arctic sea ice is being increasingly melted from below by warming Atlantic water, by Tom Rippeth, Bangor University
• Where does plastic pollution go when it enters the ocean?, by Bruce Sutherland, University of Alberta; Michelle DiBenedetto, University of Washington and Ton van den Bremer, Delft University of Technology
• Finds in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge reveal how ancient humans adapted to change, by Julio Mercader Florin, University of Calgary
• Conspiracy theories start to take hold at age 14, study suggests, by Daniel Jolley, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Karen Douglas, University of Kent, and Yvonne Skipper, University of Glasgow
• COVID vaccines: how to make sense of reports on their effectiveness, by Mark Toshner, University of Cambridge