Sea ice near the shore is crucial for dogsled travel for Arctic communities. But a new study shows that when temperatures crank up, it disappears faster—and it’s set to grow a lot worse by the end of the century.

Published in Nature Climate Change on Monday, the paper uses satellite imagery from 2000 to 2018 over 28 communities in northern Canada and western Greenland to track changes in so-called shorefast sea ice during the spring. That ice is a key connector for these remote, largely indigenous communities. During the winter and spring, it acts as a bridge to bring communities together and allows them to continue historic cultural practices that are essential to their way of life…