A warm water mass invades Atlantic Arctic Ocean, accelerating the melting of ice and typical species moving northwards. These are the findings of a study that has involved the CSIC. The international team that has participated in the first season in the Arctic ocean Arctic Tipping Points (ATP, sudden changes in the Arctic), has just returned from the expedition.Preliminary results have shown that a mass of warm Atlantic water is invading the European part of the Arctic Ocean. The detection of the levels from which they begin to make changes in the ocean was a major objective of the researchers of the CSIC. The first clear estimate of the researchers said that “the level of heating to produce sudden changes should be placed around the 3-5 C above 1990 levels. Predictions The Arctic is the area of the world where faster is by increasing the temperature, and during the twenty-first century, they expect a warming of up to 9 C. Researcher Carlos Duarte, CSIC team responsible for the project and National Research Award, notes that “the predictions that spoke of a rapid melting of ice have been overtaken by the observations and during the years 2007 and 2008.” “The dramatic acceleration of ice loss in the Arctic in recent years suggests that climate change has entered a new phase in this region. Current models suggest that Arctic Glacier Ocean could be ice free in summer within a couple of decades, if not earlier, “says Duarte. The campaign was held on Jan Mayen and Norwegian ship is the opening activity of ATP. Similarly, he has participated an international team of researchers from countries such as Norway, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Portugal, France, UK, Sweden and Spain. The ATP project will identify the components of the Arctic ecosystem are likely to experience sudden changes in response to climate warming. CSIC researchers have found that the mortality of organisms characteristic of the community in the Arctic increases rapidly with temperature. The ATP project coordinator, , University of Troms , Norway, warns: “The changes we have observed an unprecedented impact on the Arctic ecosystem.