Dr Poul Christoffersen, from the University of Cambridge, told BBC News: "We know very little about the consequences of drastic sea ice reductions.
If the Car Stock model CO2 savings in ICE reductions of 504 ktCO2 is included, then the overall net reduction in CO2 emissions is a reduction of 129 ktCO2 for the off-peak scenario but an increase of 94 ktCO2 for the peak scenario.
Sea ice reductions affect species interactions, disease transmission, and a wealth of other aspects of the ecological system [ Post et al., 2013].
Humans are affected by the ice reductions through the climate and ecosystem impacts and also through such economically relevant impacts as the anticipated opening of new trans-Arctic shipping routes [ Smith and Stephenson, 2013] and effects on proposed offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arctic [ Galley et al., 2013].
The sea ice reductions also result in increased transfer of energy between the ocean and atmosphere, a decreased strength of the Arctic atmospheric temperature inversion, and increased evaporation, with consequences to atmospheric moisture, atmospheric circulation, and precipitation [e.g., Screen et al., 2013; Vihma, 2014].
The results provide "yet another indication of the impact of sea-ice reduction on the polar climate systems," says atmospheric scientist Claire Parkinson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The greatest ice draft reduction occurred in the central and eastern Arctic.
The results of even this relatively small change have been noticeable in all aspects of the park, the report said, from glacial ice to reductions in the birthrates of at least one migratory elk herd, whose main food source, meadow grasslands, is drying out too quickly in the summer season.
Such processes include permafrost thaw; the loss of methane hydrates from the ocean floor; weaker land and ocean carbon sinks; the loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the reduction of Antarctic sea ice and polar ice sheets.
