A new study has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (AGU, 2025), which provides a comprehensive detailing of how the progressive disintegration has been taking place over the last two decades. The study has been published from the Centre for Earth Observation Sciences and led by Debangshu Banerjee, a recent graduate student from the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), together with Dr. Karen Alley (Assistant Professor, CEOS) and Dr. David Lilien (Assistant Professor, Indiana University Bloomington and former Research Associate at CEOS). The research is part of the TARSAN (Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network) project, one of the components of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) – a major U.S.–U.K. research initiative studying the processes driving change in the Thwaites Glacier of West Antarctica. Renowned glaciologists Dr. Ted Scambos, Dr. Martin Truffer, Dr. Adrian Luckman, and Dr. Erin Pettitt have also been a part of this research.

A series of diagrams showing the shear strain rates and flow divergence of the An image showing ice flow speed at the Thwaites Glacier from 2014 to 2021.

A series of diagrams showing a trend in ice-flow speed and the strain rates from 2006 to 2022.

Drawing on two decades (2002–2022) of satellite imagery, ice-flow velocity measurements, and in-situ GPS records, the team traced the evolution of fractures within the TEIS shear zone and their connection to changes in ice dynamics. The analysis revealed that the gradual development of these fractures led to the shelf’s progressive detachment from its pinning point, causing accelerated flow upstream and a loss of mechanical stability. The study identifies four distinct stages in this weakening process and offers two key insights. First, the fractures developed in two phases: an initial propagation of long, flow-parallel fractures, followed by shorter fractures oriented perpendicular to the direction of ice flow. Second, the researchers found evidence for a positive feedback mechanism between fracture-induced damage and ice acceleration—an amplifying cycle that hastened the shelf’s disintegration in recent years.

Two graphs that show the mid-shelf area of TEIS and the upstream pinning point from 2002 to 2022.

The research highlights how the pinning point, once a major stabilizing force for the TEIS, has gradually transitioned into a destabilizing agent through four distinct stages. This pattern of ice-shelf disintegration may serve as a warning for other Antarctic ice shelves that are currently showing similar signs of weakening. The continued loss of these floating ice shelves could have significant implications for the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s future contribution to global sea-level rise.

You can read more from the publication using the following DOI: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JF008352

The town of Churchill is home to North America’s principal seaport in the Arctic, which is also the only one connected to the southern railway grid. The CMO is a unique facility for both its location as well as its infrastructure, including built-in laboratories and the Ocean-Sea Ice Mesocosm (OSIM), which incorporates outdoor pools that allow for experiments using water drawn directly from Hudson Bay.

The first international researchers to work at the CMO were a team from the Arctic Research Centre at Denmark’s Aarhus University, who visited last November. In collaboration with Dr. Wang, their work focused on monitoring and studying the initial stages of thin ice formation to investigate how algae and microorganisms concentrate, and how they may influence cloud formation and the Earth’s radiation balance.

Shortly afterwards, a team of researchers from the GENICE II project led by Dr. Eric Collins with Dr. Dustin Isleifson, Dr. Gary Stern, and Dr. Nagissa Mahmoudi put the OSIM facility to the test by conducting its first-ever controlled oil spill experiment. Their use of OSIM allowed them to inject marine diesel beneath a layer of ice in the experimental pool and monitor changes while comparing it to the adjacent pristine control pool.

The GENICE II project’s multidisciplinary approach involves microbiology, remote sensing, and chemistry, and allows researchers to investigate how oil would behave and degrade in a natural Arctic environment. The project is funded by Genome Canada and Genome Prairie, with support from the University of Manitoba and McGill University.

In February, a research team led by Dr. Julienne Stroeve and Dr. John Yackel, with collaborations from Dr. Dustin Isleifson, conducted an experiment studying how salinity changes the properties of snow and radar scattering when thin layers of sea ice are weighed down by large amounts of snow precipitation and subsequently flooded from underneath – a phenomenon that could occur more regularly in the Arctic as the sea ice thins under a warming climate.

The CMO has also supported the thesis research of Maeva Gremaud, a visiting graduate student from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Gremaud studied the distribution of mercury, a major contaminant of concern in the Arctic, by comparing sea ice cores taken from OSIM with natural cores retrieved nearby from Hudson Bay.

In July, the CMO’s on-site water treatment system successfully cleaned the OSIM pool water from the first-year experiments, meaning it can be released back into Hudson Bay.

Another core element of the CMO is its Environmental Observing (EO) System, which monitors biogeochemical data from the Churchill River estuary and out along the main shipping lane in Hudson Bay. As part of the EO System and in collaboration with the Port of Churchill, a cabled observatory was deployed off the wharf in the estuary this year in a testing phase, with plans to retrieve it in the fall and redeploy it next spring.

A community-based monitoring program hiring local community members in Churchill to examine drivers of production in the estuary has also been launched through a collaboration between the CMO and Oceans North.

Finally, the CMO is also equipped with an on-site atmospheric monitoring station collecting real-time meteorological and air quality data, supporting research on the atmospheric chemistry and physics of the rapidly changing sub-Arctic region.

Looking forward, the CMO is prepared to host more researchers from different disciplines and sectors, including local and Indigenous researchers, to conduct specialized experiments and to co-develop knowledge and technologies with the town of Churchill, as well as other communities in the region. For example, the GENICE II team will return to the CMO to expand on their study this winter.

Supported by Rolex as part of its Perpetual Planet Initiative and anchored by National Geographic Explorers, the field research involves expeditions to all five ocean basins — the Arctic, Pacific, Southern, Atlantic and Indian — that will integrate cutting-edge science and local ecological knowledge to examine the causes and impacts of marine systems change while developing bold and innovative solutions in collaboration with coastal communities.

Dr. Kristina Brown, a National Geographic Explorer, is working in the Sherman Basin, which is located in the Kitikmeot Sea in the southern Canadian Arctic. This region and Dr. Brown’s research are important in understanding the marine food security of the local Inuit.

Dr. Brown has been conducting oceanographic studies on board the Arctic Research Foundation’s R/V Martin Bergmann and is collaborating closely with the community of Gjoa Haven in an effort to support sustaining marine food security in the face of a rapidly changing and warming Arctic Ocean.

The objectives and outcomes of the Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions aim to deepen our understanding of this essential ecosystem while generating solutions in support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

To learn more about this project, use this link: https://news.nationalgeographic.org/national-geographic-society-and-rolex-announce-ambitious-exploration-encompassing-all-five-regions-of-the-global-ocean/

To learn more about Perpetual Planet Expeditions, use this link: http://natgeo.org/perpetualplanetexpeditions

This endowment fund was established at the University of Manitoba to honour the memory of Dr. David Barber, Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Centre for Earth Observation Science. Dr. David Barber also held a and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Arctic System Science and Climate Change.

Dr. Tim Papakyriakou and Lucette Barber presenting the awards.

The fund, which has so far awarded $140,000 to 19 recipients, is meant to support graduate students who are conducting or have conducted thesis research pertaining to the Arctic and who demonstrated outstanding leadership and/or excellence in Arctic research.

Use the following link to find out more information about the D.G. & V.E. Barber Memorial Fellowship in Arctic Research, including past recipients and details for how the fund is supported.

Below are the recipients from Spring Convocation 2025, including their project titles:

• Madhurima Chakraborty, M.Sc. – Exploring the environmental factors controlling iceberg season severity along the east coast of Canada
• Veronica Coppolaro, Ph.D.  – Passive acoustic monitoring of marine mammals and vessel noise in Hudson Bay
• Zakhar Kazmiruk, Ph.D. – Marine microbiology in the changing Canadian Arctic
• Lisa Kulchyck, M.Sc. – Evaluating the relationship between lipids and body condition in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) harvested for subsistence in the Western Arctic 
• Nicole Loeb, Ph.D. – Extreme Precipitation in Greenland and the Baffin Bay Region: Changes, Drivers, and Impacts on Land Ice

This is the deepest one ever pulled in Canada. Ice cores are samples that can provide information about the past.

“By analyzing this ice core, we should get a 10,000-year record of climatic conditions over the Canadian Arctic,” says researcher David Babb. “This is the first time we’ve been able to do something like this.”

To read the entire story, please follow the link to CTV Winnipeg.

You can also watch a short clip about this story by following the link to CTV News YouTube.

The Globe and Mail also wrote this in-depth piece and you can follow the link to read it: In Canada’s high arctic, scientists on mission to drill deep into climate history

The Müller Ice Cap Project, led by Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Ice, Freshwater Marine Coupling, and Climate Change, aims to extract a 600-meter ice core, which will provide a roughly 10,000-year record of climate and sea conditions in the Canadian Arctic.

Map showing the location of Müller Ice Cap.

In 2023, the research team visited Müller Ice Cap to conduct ice-penetrating radar surveys and select a suitable drill site for the climate record they seek. This year, the team is returning to drill the core.

Over the next two months, the team will drill the 600-meter ice core in 2-3-meter sections. This process will require the drill to be attached to a cable, making hundreds of runs up and down the hole until it reaches bedrock. The 2-3-meter sections of the ice core will be transported to the Canadian Ice Core Laboratory in Edmonton, where they will be analyzed in the fall.

David Babb, a researcher at the Centre for Earth Observation Science at UM, notes that the northern latitude and high elevation of the drill site provide an excellent opportunity to understand past climatic conditions in the Arctic.

While researchers know that sea ice extent and glaciers are rapidly changing, it remains unclear how these changes compare to those of the past. This project will significantly improve their understanding of past Arctic sea ice and climate conditions, offering crucial insights into ongoing changes in the region.

To follow the research team’s progress, check out their daily blog, Field updates from Muller Ice Cap.

To watch and listen to the full conversation, please follow the link to CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.

Map of the Hudson Bay showing the Manitoba coast taken from Coppolaro et al. (2025).

The bowhead whale is the only baleen whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. Two populations are found in Canadian waters: The East Canada-Western Greenland (EC-WG) population, found in northern Hudson Bay to Greenland, and the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population, found in waters from northwestern Canada to Russia.

Commercial whaling from the 15th to the 19th century severely depleted the EC-WG population. While the population began to recover after commercial whaling ended in 1915, numbers recently seem to have plateaued.

A recently published paper by Coppolaro et al. highlights the first recorded sighting of a group of bowhead whales in the Churchill River Estuary and emphasizes the rarity of the occurrence based on historical data.

Veronica L.M. Coppolaro, Ph. D. candidate, and Emma Ausen, M.Sc., from the University of Manitoba, were conducting a beluga whale monitoring study when the sighting occurred. While reviewing time-lapse photos, Ausen noticed two dark figures in one of the images. Coppolaro recalls Ausen saying, “There’s a huge branch, like a log, in the water!”

Later, they heard reports from local tour guides of a bowhead whale in the estuary. “If the dates of the reports match the photos, we may have captured bowhead whales,” Ausen remarked. The pair then carefully identified the species in the images and worked to contextualize the observation. The goal of their paper was to determine how common such a sighting has been in the past and investigate why bowhead whales might be in the area.

Veronica Coppolaro, UM researcher, conducting a beluga whale monitoring study. Photo supplied by Veronica Coppolaro.

Apart from the summer migration of Western Hudson Bay belugas, no other whale species is known to frequent the Churchill River Estuary.

“The estuary is shallow, less than three meters in most parts of it,” Coppolaro explains. “And bowhead whales are big—up to 18 meters long!” Moreover, bowhead whales are typically observed alone when found outside their usual range. “They generally do not travel in groups,” Coppolaro emphasizes.

Given the rarity of this sighting, Coppolaro et al. conducted a review of bowhead whale sightings along the coast of Manitoba, compiling literature, anecdotal accounts, and observations from locals and researchers. They found only ten documented sightings of bowhead whales in the area since 1900, all of them involving single whales.

Time lapse camera set-up overlooking the Churchill River Estuary. Photo supplied by Emma Ausen and Veronica Coppolaro.

Why were the whales this far south?

One hypothesis is that the bowheads have moved south due to shifting habitats caused by climate change.

Another possibility is that the EC-WG population is increasing, leading to a gradual expansion of their range due to both climate change and population recovery.

Additionally, the decline in sea ice has led to more orca sightings in Hudson Bay. As a result, bowhead whales could be using the estuary as a refuge to escape predation.

“They could have also been scouting for food,” Coppolaro explains. Due to tidal changes, the estuary provides an abundance of food for both baleen and toothed whales.  

Emma Ausen, UM Researcher, overlooking the estuary. Photo supplied by Emma Ausen and Veronica Coppolaro.

The whales could be using the warmer and shallower waters of the bay to molt and shed their skin, just like belugas do.

While there are many possible reasons for the bowheads’ presence in the estuary, one hypothesis is that the pair spotted in 2020 was a calf and a cow.

What does the future hold?

“Since 2000, there has been an increase in bowhead whale sightings in the estuary” Coppolaro explains. However, increased vessel traffic could impact the whales’ presence in the future.

The EC-WG population is designated as “Special Concern” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). If the estuary becomes a hotspot for these whales, it may require additional management strategies. This could involve establishing limits on vessel size and speed in the estuary.

UM Researchers conducting fieldwork by boat in the Churchill River Estuary. Photo supplied by Emma Ausen and Veronica Coppolaro.

Coppolaro hopes that the findings of their paper will help raise awareness about shifting habitats and changes in marine ecosystems.

“There’s something special about when these animals come through—it’s big news in town, shared with everyone. It’s part of the wonder of Churchill and the adventure,” Ausen shares “Sometimes, science is simply about discovering more about the world we live in”.

You can read the full paper in Polar Biology by clicking the following link:  First documented sighting of a group of bowhead whales outside their typical range in Hudson Bay | Polar Biology

Veronica Coppolaro (left) and Emma Ausen (right) in the field. Photo supplied by Emma Ausen and Veronica Coppolaro.

Beluga whales hanging around UM researchers’ boat. Photo supplied by Emma Ausen.

The $30,000 solar panel will reduce the hydro bill, plus excess power generated by it can be put on Manitoba Hydro’s grid.

Debbie Armstrong, an instructor in the environment and geography department, who is a technician at the ultra-clean trace elements laboratory, wrote the proposal to acquire the panel.

To read the entire story, please follow the link to the Winnipeg Free Press.

Mark Neufeld, UM video content creator, travelled to Churchill to experience the opening and spent a week capturing researchers in the field, insights from local community and stunning footage of the breathtaking Arctic landscape. 

Through meaningful collaboration with Indigenous partners—whose knowledge and perspectives are essential to understanding and safeguarding these fragile environments—discover how this facility is a transformative step in advancing environmental research and studying the effects of human activities on Arctic ecosystems.

Hear more from Dr. Feiyue Wang in Season 3, Episode 2 of What’s the Big Idea Podcast: Climate, Commerce and Hudson Bay’s Future