The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions cover a large area of our planet. These ecosystems with their exceptional characteristics are home to fascinating fauna and flora that have not been studied very much to date because of their inaccessibility.
The latest research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that northern regions are warming twice as fast today as elsewhere on the planet.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. Data provided by Robert B. Schmunk (NASA/GSFC GISS).
This warming, caused by human activities, has a major impact on the Arctic ice pack, both in terms of its size and the age and density of the ice that it contains.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
In addition to its impacts on the reduction of Arctic sea ice, global warming also affects northern flora, which must cope with changing growing seasons and more extreme weather events.
Given these new phenomena, global warming is making northern ecosystems particularly vulnerable and subject to several radical transformations in the coming decades.
By travelling through the territory independently and continuously, the AKOR expedition offers a unique opportunity to study these northern ecosystems not only on an ad hoc basis, but also as a whole.
