How has climate change impacted Antarctic ice and local wildlife? This is what a recent study published in Nature Climate Change hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how Antarctic ice shifts have been impacted by climate change. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the multi-layered impact of climate change and the steps we can take to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from almost 600,000 hydrographic profiles, which are datasets displaying an ocean physical and chemical properties to explore changes in the Southern Ocean from 2005 to 2022. The goal of the study was to ascertain temperature changes in the upper portions of the Southern Ocean and how this impacted sea ice shifts, which experienced drastic changes between 2015 and 2017. In the end, the researchers found that a combination of increased warming and strong winds contributed to this rapid sea ice loss between 2015 and 2017.
To help with their data collecting strategies, the researchers tagged a series of elephant seals as the latter dived into the deep ocean, enabling researchers to gather data on ocean temperatures and salt content.
“There was a protective layer of cold water beneath the sea ice in Antarctica that prevented warmer deep water from rising and melting the ice from below,” said Dr. Theo Spira, who is a Postdoctoral Research at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and lead author of the study. “But during the winter of 2015, storms in the Southern Ocean were unusually strong, reducing the cold-water protective layer effect and resulting in the sustained sea ice loss around Antarctica.”
This study comes as climate changes continues to ravage the planet, resulting in reduced sea ice and increasing the chances for rising sea levels. Therefore, studies like this can help highlight how climate change is impacting Antarctic ice so we can take the necessary steps to combat it.
What new insight into climate change and Antarctic ice will scientists make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature Climate Change, EurekAlert!
Featured Image Credit: Theo Spira
