Sea Ice and the NAO
I've been with working with Ari Friedlaender and David Lavigne (see collaborators page) on a project examining sea ice dynamics in the North Atlantic and their effects on breeding pagophilic seals. Previously, we established that the mode of the North Atlantic Oscillation contributes strongly to the amount of sea ice 
off eastern Canada (study available here). This is an important breeding site for harp and hooded seals, and these animals depending on ice as a platform to give birth to and nurse their pups. We've recently expanded this study to look at the other breeding sites for harp seals - the West Ice and the White Sea. While the results are certainly preliminary (and soon to be presented at the CLIOTOP 2007 meeting), at right is a sneak-peek at one of the results. As we found previously, sea ice tends to be in phase with the NAO signal - meaning that when the NAO is positive, there is greater and more persistent sea ice. Interestingly, it appears that the White Sea is actually out of phase with the NAO, exhibiting lower ice concentrations when the NAO is positive. Cool stuff, and more to come.