There are many papers in the literature confirming the dynamic status of polar ice. Some reports show it's increasing over some period of time, some show it's decreasing over some period of time.

"Publish or perish" results in much redundancy in the literature, and it is often necessary to edit data or conclusions in such a way that some crucial "problem" can be identified in order to ensure further research grants.

My point is that this paper just fits into the expected pattern, so it tells us nothing new.