Coastal Polynyas Enable Transitions Between High and Low West Antarctic Ice Shelf Melt Rates

Important role for ocean warming and increased ice-shelf melt in Antarctic sea-ice expansion

Changes in sea ice significantly modulate climate change because of its high reflective and strong insulating nature. In contrast to Arctic sea ice, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded1, with record extent2 in 2010. This ice expansion has previously been attributed to dynamical atmospheric changes that induce atmospheric cooling3. Here we show that accelerated basal melting of Antarctic...

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative

The ocean's influence upon and response to Antarctic ice sheet changes is considered in relation to sea level rise over recent and future decades. Assuming present-day ice fronts are in approximate equilibrium, a preliminary budget for the ice sheet is estimated from accumulation vs. iceberg calving and the basal melting that occurs beneath floating ice shelves. Iceberg calving is derived from ...

Algal Clues to Antarctic Ice Shelf Ages

1111 Algal Clues to Antarctic Ice Shelf Ages The naturally high variability of sea ice extent in Antarctica and the short duration of instrumental records have combined to obscure any clear record of sea ice coverage change. Curran et al. (p. 1203; see the Perspective by Wolff) present an ice core record of methanesulfonic acid, a species produced by algae living at the edges of ice shelves, wh...

Ice shelf changes on the Antarctic Peninsula

Benthic microbial communities of coastal terrestrial and ice shelf Antarctic meltwater ponds

The numerous perennial meltwater ponds distributed throughout Antarctica represent diverse and productive ecosystems central to the ecological functioning of the surrounding ultra oligotrophic environment. The dominant taxa in the pond benthic communities have been well described however, little is known regarding their regional dispersal and local drivers to community structure. The benthic mi...