Barents Sea the Norwegian Sea to the west, and the archipelagos of Svalbard to the northwest, Franz Josef Land to the northeast and Novaya Zemlya to the east. The islands of Novaya Zemlya, an extension of the northern end of the Ural Mountains, separate the Barents Sea from the Kara Sea. Despite being part of the Arctic Ocean, the Barents Sea has been characterized as "turning into the Atlantic" because of its status as "the Arctic warming hot spot." Hydrologic changes due to global warming have led to a reduction in sea ice and in stratification of the water column, which could
Severnaya Zemlya north from Siberia. The climate data below, taken from the Golomyanniy Meteorological Station gives an indication of the weather experienced in the archipelago. Severnaya Zemlya is a polar desert with sparse vegetation and permafrost at less than . Rare vascular plants include species of "Cerastium" and "Saxifraga". Non-vascular plants include the moss genera "Detrichum", "Dicranum", "Pogonatum", "Sanionia", "Bryum", "Orthothecium" and "Tortula", as well as the lichen genera "Cetraria", "Thamnolia", "Cornicularia", "Lecidea", "Ochrolechia" and "Parmelia". Common flowering plants of the high Arctic such as the purple saxifrage ("Saxifraga oppositifolia") and the Arctic poppy ("Papaver radicatum") also occur on Severnaya Zemlya. According