Arctic Shifts (2024)
science animation (10’10”)
ABOUT THE ANIMATION
In the animated short “Arctic Shifts,” scientific climate simulations and speculative storytelling combine to reveal the connections between our human activity and the ecosystem and environmental changes occurring in the Arctic.
The Arctic is the region of our planet warming most rapidly due to climate change. Sea ice is melting, coastlines are eroding, and permafrost is thawing. As a result, ecosystems are changing rapidly. "Arctic Shifts" asks viewers to consider the connections between our human activity and the ecosystem and environmental changes occurring in the Arctic. How does a breath you take affect tiny organisms called phytoplankton that live in the Arctic? What happens to all the other creatures in the Arctic and around the world when the lives of these single-celled photosynthesizing organisms at the base of the food web change? "Arctic Shifts" was created by artist Anna Lindemann and scientist Dr. Alice DuVivier, a polar climate modeler at U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). The animation references scientific research and incorporates visualizations of the Arctic’s future climate generated using a state-of-the art global climate model. At the same time, "Arctic Shifts" shows possible future scenarios for Arctic food webs that go beyond the scope of current scientific simulations. The animation presents three different stories about what the Arctic might look like in the future.
“Arctic Shifts” was created for display at the public exhibits at the NSF NCAR Mesa Lab.
EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
2025 NSF NCAR Explorer Series Lecture with Courtney Payne, “A frozen sea in flux: Understanding changing Arctic Ocean ecosystems through art and science,” NCAR Mesa Lab in Boulder, CO and online (invited talk and screening)
2025 Artist Talk at The William Benton Museum of Art, “Arctic Shifts, An Art-Science Animation on the Changing Arctic,” Storrs, CT (invited talk and screening)
2025 2025 Digital Media and Design Faculty Exhibition, The William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, CT (exhibition)
2025 NSF NCAR Mesa Lab Visitor Center, Boulder, CO (permanent public exhibit)
2024 “The Ecosystem” October 2024 issue of Labocine (a subscription-based “Home of Films from the Science New Wave” with monthly issues of curated films).
2024 FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology, “Arctic Shifts: Process, Problems, and Prospects,” Windsor, Ontario, Canada (juried conference presentation)
We would love to share Arctic Shifts with you! We are looking to share the work at film festivals, schools, universities, art galleries, science museums, lab meetings, community spaces, and with other curious individuals. Please contact aklindemann@gmail.com to watch the film or schedule an event.
WATCH
CREDITS
Directed by Anna Lindemann
Developed by Dr. Alice DuVivier and Anna Lindemann
Animation by Dominica Harrison, Anna Lindemann, and Suzanne Matharan
Visualization of Arctic sea ice and global phytoplankton activity generated by Dr. Alice DuVivier using Community Earth System Model version 2, Large Ensemble (CESM2-LE) simulations
Music and sound design by Anna Lindemann composed using Gene Network Music algorithms developed by Anna Lindemann and Eric Lindemann
Support
This film was made possible through generous support from the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Research Grant and the Office of the Vice President for Research
Anna Lindemann developed this work while in residency at the National Humanities Center
The global sea ice and phytoplankton activity is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR), a major facility sponsored by NSF under Cooperative Agreement #1852977. The CESM project is primarily supported by NSF, and we thank all the scientists, software engineers, and administrators who contributed to the development of CESM2. Computing and data storage resources were provided by the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at NCAR. Dr. Alice DuVivier additionally acknowledges support for contributing to this work from the NSF Awards #2043588 and #1928112. Travel funds for Anna Lindemann to visit NSF NCAR to complete preliminary research were provided by the NSF NCAR Early Career Scientist Assembly.
phytoplankton
centric diatom: Thalassiosira gravida Cleve, 1896
centric diatom: Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii Cleve, 1873
pennate diatom: Cylindrotheca closterium (Ehrenberg) Reimann and J. C. Lewin, 1964
picoeukaryote: Chrysochromulina parva Lackey, 1939
coccolithophore: Gephyrocapsa huxleyi (Lohmann) P. Reinhardt, 1972 (formerly Emiliana huxleyi)
zooplankton
Calanus hyperboreus Kroyer, 1838
Arctic cod
Boreogadus saida Lepechin, 1774
ringed seal
Pusa hispida Schreber, 1775
polar bear
Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774
Featured Organisms
Ardyna M, Arrigo KR (2020) Phytoplankton dynamics in a changing Arctic Ocean. Nature Climate Change 10(10):892–903.
Ardyna M, Babin M, Gosselin M, et al (2014) Recent Arctic Ocean sea ice loss triggers novel fall phytoplankton blooms. Geophysical Research Letters 41(17):6207–6212.
Barton AD, Pershing AJ, Litchman E, et al (2013) The biogeography of marine plankton traits. Ecology Letters 16(4):522–534.
Darnis G, Robert D, Pomerleau C, et al (2012) Current state and trends in Canadian Arctic marine ecosystems: II. Heterotrophic food web, pelagic-benthic coupling, and biodiversity. Climatic Change 115(1):179–205.
DuVivier AK, Holland MM, Kay JE, et al (2020) Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Mean State in the Community Earth System Model Version 2 and the Influence of Atmospheric Chemistry. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125(8).
Falkowski P (2012) Ocean Science: The power of plankton. Nature 483(7387):S17–S20.
Falkowski P, Knoll AH (2007) Chapter 1 - An Introduction to Primary Producers in the Sea: Who They Are, What They Do, and When They Evolved. In: Evolution of Primary Producers in the Sea. Academic Press, Burlington, pp 1–6
Flying over Arctic Sea Ice (2011) In: NASA Visible Earth.
Fu W, Moore JK, Primeau FW, et al (2020) A Growing Freshwater Lens in the Arctic Ocean with Sustained Climate Warming Disrupts Marine Ecosystem Function. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 125(12).
Grosfeld K, Treffeisen R, Löschke S (2020) DriftStories from the Central Arctic - one year, one floe - sea-ice research to the extreme. REKLIM - Helmholtz Climate Initiative Regional Climate Change and Humans, Bremerhaven, Germany.
Hurrell JW, Holland MM, Gent PR, et al (2013) The Community Earth System Model: A Framework for Collaborative Research. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 94(9):1339–1360.
Kahru M, Brotas V, Manzano-Sarabia M, Mitchell BG (2011) Are phytoplankton blooms occurring earlier in the Arctic? Global Change Biology 17(4):1733–1739.
Krumhardt KM, Lovenduski NS, Iglesias-Rodriguez MD, Kleypas JA (2017) Coccolithophore growth and calcification in a changing ocean. Progress in Oceanography 159:276–295.
Laidre KL, Atkinson S, Regehr EV, et al (2020) Interrelated ecological impacts of climate change on an apex predator. Ecological Applications 30(4).
Laidre KL, Regehr EV (2018) Arctic Marine Mammals. In: Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Third Edition). Academic Press, pp 34–40
Landrum L, Holland MM (2020) Extremes become routine in an emerging new Arctic. Nature Climate Change 10(12):1108–1115.
McGwin K (2021) Phytoplankton blooms hint at changing Arctic waters. In: ArcticToday.
Meunier A (1910) Microplankton des mers de Barents et de Kara. Bulens, Brussels.
Neukermans G, Oziel L, Babin M (2018) Increased intrusion of warming Atlantic water leads to rapid expansion of temperate phytoplankton in the Arctic. Global Change Biology 24(6):2545–2553.
Phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea (2005). In: NASA Visible Earth.
Phytoplankton Surge in Arctic Waters (2020). In: NASA Visible Earth.
Poulin M, Daugbjerg N, Gradinger R, et al (2011) The pan-Arctic biodiversity of marine pelagic and sea-ice unicellular eukaryotes: a first-attempt assessment. Marine Biodiversity 41(1):13–28.
Righetti D, Vogt M, Zimmermann NE, et al (2020) PhytoBase: A global synthesis of open-ocean phytoplankton occurrences. Earth System Science Data 12(2):907–933.
Rodgers KB, Lee S-S, Rosenbloom N, et al (2021) Ubiquity of human-induced changes in climate variability. Earth System Dynamics 12(4):1393–1411.
State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Report (2017). Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) International Secretariat, Akureyri, Iceland.
REFERENCES
Special Thanks
Becca Hathaway, Kristen Krumhardt, Sharon Clark
CESM Polar Climate Working Group, including: David Bailey, David Bonan, David Clemens-Sewall, Patricia DeRepentigny, Marika Holland, Laura Landrum, Christina McCluskey, Gabriela Negrete-Garcia, Courtney Payne, Maddie Smith
Todd Amodeo, Tim Barnes, Laura Hoff, Kristin Laidre, Karen Strobel, Alain Frogley, Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, Yohei Igarashi, Bonnie Mettler, Eric Lindemann