Figure 1.

Polar regions as extreme marine environments. Mean and seasonal range of sea surface temperature along longitude 170°W in the Pacific Ocean (open circles) and longitude 30°W in the Atlantic Ocean (filled circles). Data were calculated for the period 1986–2001. (a) Mean temperature. (b) Mean annual temperature range. The AVHRR Pathfinder v. 5.0 SST data were obtained from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California (http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov).