The impacts of climate change on Arctic marine systems are noticeable within the scientific “lifetime” of mostresearchers and the iconic image of a polar bear struggling to stay on top of a melting ice floe captures many ofthe dominant themes of Arctic marine ecosystem change. But has our focus on open-ocean systems and param-eters that are more easily modeled and sensed remotely neglected an element that is responding more dramati-cally and with broader implications for Arctic ecosystems? We argue that a complementary set of changes tothe open ocean is occurring along Arctic coasts, amplified by the interaction with changes on land and in thesea. We observe an increased number of ecosystem drivers with larger implications for the ecological andhuman communities they touch than are quantifiable in the open Arctic Ocean. Substantial knowledge gapsexist that must be filled to support adaptation and sustainability of socioecological systems along Arctic coasts.
