A prognosticative synopsis of contemporary marginal ice zone research

Commentary narrated in this theme issue is recast to contextualize the diverse themes presented into a forward-looking conversation that synthesizes, debates opportunities for multidisciplinary advances and highlights topics that deserve enduring sharpened attention. Research oriented towards foundational elements of the marginal ice zone that relates to three unifying topic subclasses—namely (i) wave propagation through sea ice, (ii) floe size distributions and (iii) ice dynamics and break-up—and is encapsulated in mini-reviews provided by Thomson, Horvat and Dumont is revisited to distill it into a blueprint for the future guided by the cutting-edge, present-day knowledge documented herein by leading practitioners in the field. Six threads are signalled as imperative for prospective research, each with a bearing on Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice canopies in which the propensity for marginal ice zones to coexist with pack ice is greater as a result of global climate change reducing sea-ice resilience while increasing the prevalence and forcefulness of injurious storm winds and waves. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Theory, modelling and observations of marginal ice zone dynamics: multidisciplinary perspectives and outlooks’.