Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier, aka the "Doomsday Glacier," is starting to crack. NASA / Wikimedia Commons
Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier has been called the "Doomsday Glacier." Thwaites and its neighbor, the Pine Island Glacier, are among those in West Antarctica most influenced by the climate crisis. If they melted, they could destabilize the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has the potential to contribute about 10 feet to global sea level rise.
<p>Now, a new study has found that the ice shelves supporting the two crucial glaciers are beginning to fissure and crack.</p><p>"These ice shelves are in the early phase of disintegration," study leader and Delft University of Technology satellite expert Stef Lhermitte told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/weather/antarctica-pine-island-thwaites-glacier-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "They're starting to tear apart."</p><p>The research, published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/08/1912890117" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> Monday, looked at satellite images taken between 1997 and 2019 to document the ice shelves' increasing damage. The images show crevices and fissures in the glaciers, according to a Delft <a href="https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2020/tu-delft/antarctica-cracks-in-the-ice/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<div id="9e0ea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="307392311f755bed5cb3a21f52e3dbc1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1305597446182051841" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We use satellite imagery to show how the shear margins of both @AntarcticPIG and @ThwaitesGlacier have weakened. He… https://t.co/nKn0nGLU9V</div> — Stef Lhermitte (@Stef Lhermitte)<a href="https://twitter.com/StefLhermitte/statuses/1305597446182051841">1600113662.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Ice shelves are important for a glacier's stability because they provide support, similarly to how flying buttresses support a cathedral, International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration lead principle researcher Brent Goehring <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/satellite-images-show-deterioration-antarctica-glaciers-lead-rising/story?id=72985182" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told ABC News</a>. Goehring was not involved with the paper.</p><p>The damage is occurring in the glaciers' shear zones, parts of the ice shelves where the fast-moving ice on top connects with the slower-moving ice or rock beneath, CNN explained. That damage significantly increased in 2016.</p><p>The researchers think that the damage they observed to the ice shelves will only beget more damage, Lhermitte explained in a <a href="https://twitter.com/StefLhermitte/status/1305599311091240963" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter thread</a>. This is for three reasons:</p><ol><li>The damage undermines the structural integrity of the ice shelves.</li><li>The damage weakens the ice shelves and makes them more vulnerable to warming air and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> temperatures.</li><li>The damage creates a feedback loop, leading to more weakening and more damage.</li></ol>
<p>Because of this, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> suggested that the damage be accounted for in climate models to better predict how Antarctic ice melt will contribute to sea level rise.</p><p>Sea levels are currently rising by around 3.5 millimeters a year, and the Thwaites Glacier accounts for four to five percent of that, Goehring told ABC News.</p><p>"If those glaciers would destabilize, a lot of neighboring areas would also fall apart, causing a widespread collapse," Indrani Das, a co-principle researcher on an International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration project, told ABC News. "It would cause a huge sea level rise."</p><p>However, Das did not think it likely that the collapse would take place this century.</p>
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Penguins gather on an ice floe near Davis Station, Southern Ocean, Antarctica on Jan. 25, 2019. copyright Jeff Miller / Moment / Getty Images
Antarctica and Greenland's ice sheets are currently melting at a pace consistent with worst-case-scenario predictions for sea level rise, with serious consequences for coastal communities and the reliability of climate models.
<p>A paper published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0893-y" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a> Monday compared the latest satellite observations of polar ice melt with the predictions outlined in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report</a>. It <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0893-y.epdf?no_publisher_access=1&r3_referer=nature" target="_blank">found</a> that the ice sheets are currently raising sea levels at a rate 45 percent above the IPCC's central prediction and closer to its worst-case scenario. If this continues, the two ice sheets could raise sea levels a further 17 centimeters (approximately 7 inches) more than central predictions by 2100.</p><p>"If ice sheet losses continue to track our worst-case climate warming scenarios we should expect an additional 17cm of sea level rise from the ice sheets alone," study coauthor and University of Leeds researcher Anna Hogg said in a <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/4658/sea_level_rise_matches_worst-case_scenario" target="_blank">university press release</a>. "That's enough to double the frequency of storm-surge <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> in many of the world's largest coastal cities."</p>
<div id="2fa32" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b464cded4f9b3404465e4b8c04f92009"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1300528364873277440" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Ice sheets losses are tracking the IPCCs worst case climate predictions. This could mean an extra 17 cm of sea leve… https://t.co/wPdqTWef1D</div> — CPOM News (@CPOM News)<a href="https://twitter.com/CPOM_news/statuses/1300528364873277440">1598905099.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Since the 1990s, the two ice sheets have already increased global sea levels by 1.8 centimeters (approximately 0.7 inches). But it was between 2007 and 2017 that the ice sheets began to lose mass at a rate consistent with worst-case-scenario projections, adding around 1.23 centimeters (approximately 0.5 inches) to the water line during that decade, according to the study.</p><p>A worst-case-scenario sea level rise as currently predicted would expose 44 to 66 million people to yearly coastal flooding by century's end. But one of study's most alarming implications is that, if sea level rise is already tracking worst-case-scenario predictions, the actual worst-case scenario could be even more dire.</p>
<p>"We need to come up with a new worst-case scenario for the ice sheets because they are already melting at a rate in line with our current one," lead author and Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at the University of Leeds researcher Thomas Slater told <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/ice-sheet-melting-is-perfectly-in-line-with-our-worst-case-scenario-scientists-warn?fbclid=IwAR2s5aduvFPi61VIAg7yIvh813EBaKGyJPzQh836ugmUY3pPkm3wHGfaTx0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AFP</a>. "Sea level projections are critical in helping governments plan climate policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies. If we underestimate future sea level rise, then these measures may be inadequate and leave coastal communities vulnerable."</p><p>One of the reasons climate models might underestimate the worst-case scenario, Slater told AFP, is that they do not account for short-term weather changes such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/heat-wave" target="_self">heat wave</a> that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-record-breaking-melt-heat-wave-2639610009.html" target="_self">drove</a> Greenland's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-melt-2019-2647049163.html" target="_self">record melt</a> in the summer of 2019.</p><p>The models that will be used for the IPCC's next report are better at predicting how the ice sheets, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> and atmosphere interact, Slater said.</p>
<p>The latest study follows a slew of bad news for the world's ice. One study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html" target="_self">published in August</a> found that the Greenland ice sheet had passed the "point of no return" and would continue to melt even if the climate crisis were halted.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-sea-ice-melt-study-2647072206.html" target="_self">Another recent study</a>, also driven by Leeds' CPOM, calculated that the earth had lost 28 trillion tonnes (approximately 31 trillion U.S. tons) of ice in just 23 years.</p><p>These studies reflect a new global reality: In the last five years, melt from ice sheets and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glaciers</a> has outpaced the expansion of warming ocean water as the main cause of sea level rise.</p><p>"It is not only Antarctica and Greenland that are causing the water to rise," Dr. Ruth Mottram, a coauthor on Monday's study and a climate researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute, told the University of Leeds. "In recent years, thousands of smaller glaciers have begun to melt or disappear altogether, as we saw with the glacier Ok in Iceland, which was declared 'dead' in 2014. This means that melting of ice has now taken over as the main contributor of sea level rise."</p>
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Earth Lost Over 30 Trillion Tons of Ice in Under 30 Years, Scientists 'Stunned' by Landmark Study
24 August
Climate
Sea ice breaking up in Greenland. steve_is_on_holiday / E+ / Getty Images
The Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes (approximately 31 trillion U.S. tons) of ice in just 23 years, and the climate crisis is largely to blame.
<p>The finding comes in a <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2020-232/" target="_blank">review paper</a> published in The Cryosphere this month that used satellite data and numerical modelling to calculate all the ice that melted worldwide between 1994 and 2017.</p><p>"In the past researchers have studied individual areas – such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctic</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenland" target="_self">Greenland</a> – where ice is melting. But this is the first time anyone has looked at all the ice that is disappearing from the entire planet," study coauthor and director of Leeds University's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling Andy Shepherd told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/23/earth-lost-28-trillion-tonnes-ice-30-years-global-warming" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "What we have found has stunned us."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" target="_self">Arctic</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice" target="_self">sea ice</a>, Antarctic ice shelves, mountain <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glaciers</a>, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and Southern Ocean sea ice all lost mass during the study period, the researchers wrote. About 68 percent of those losses were caused by warmer air temperatures, while the remaining 32 percent were caused by warmer <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> water.</p><p>"There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Earth's ice loss is a direct consequence of climate warming," the researchers wrote, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>In fact, the total ice loss recorded matches the worst-case scenario predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). And it's likely to get worse. The researchers prognosticate a meter (approximately three feet) of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a> by 2100.</p><p>"To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands," Shepherd told The Guardian.</p><p>But sea level rise isn't the only consequence of ice melt. For one thing, the melting ice exposes darker ocean waters or soil, which absorb the sun's heat rather than reflect it, increasing global heating. The fresh water melting from ice sheets also disrupts Arctic and Antarctic ocean ecosystems, while the loss of mountain glaciers threatens the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> of several communities.</p><p>"What more can be said? What further evidence are we waiting for?" UK Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas tweeted in response to the news. "Feel so overwhelmingly sad - and so angry too. We can't say we didn't know. Are we really saying we just didn't care?"</p>
<div id="820ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc5cc2d33d34204b11a78693091a1afe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1297470664031588352" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">What more can be said? What further evidence are we waiting for?
Feel so overwhelmingly sad - and so angry too
W… https://t.co/cvYV9ore53</div> — Caroline Lucas (@Caroline Lucas)<a href="https://twitter.com/CarolineLucas/statuses/1297470664031588352">1598176086.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This has been a bad summer for ice news. Another study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html" target="_self">published this month</a> found that Greenland's ice sheet had reached the "point of no return" and would continue to melt even if the climate crisis were halted. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-melt-2019-2647049163.html" target="_self">third study</a> found that Greenland lost a record amount of ice in 2019.</p>
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The Wildlife from Space project uses satellite technology to identify, count and monitor species such as emperor penguins in Antarctica. British Antarctic Survey / YouTube
New satellite images have revealed 11 new throngs of emperor penguin colonies, lifting the number of known emperor penguin colonies by 20 percent and their total population by 5 to 10 percent, according to The Guardian.
<p>"The [new colonies] are an exciting discovery," said Peter Fretwell, at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the research, according to The Guardian. "Whilst this is good news, the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count up to just over half a million penguins."</p><p>While that may sound like great news for penguins, the truth is these penguins are just as threatened as the rest of their flightless feathered friends, according to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/satellite-images-reveal-new-penguin-colonies-in-melting-1844609508" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>.</p><p>The 11 new colonies bring the total number up to 61 colonies spread across the continent. Now, the newly discovered birds will act as "canaries in the coalmine" when it comes to studying the impact of global warming, experts have said, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/world/penguins-antarctica-satellite-scn-scli-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>The study, which used satellite mapping technology, will "provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird," researchers said, according to CNN.</p><p>The study was published in <em><a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20563485/0/0" target="_blank">Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation</a></em> on Wednesday. The findings help shed light on just how threatened the emperor penguins really are. While the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> is rapidly altering the surface of Earth, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a> is running ahead of most of the world. It is warming three times faster than the most of the planet. With all that warmth comes the loss of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice">sea ice</a>, which is devastating to emperor penguins since they breed on the ice and need it to be stable, as Gizmodo reported.</p><p>"Emperor penguins are vulnerable to climate change, particularly the breakup of the sea ice on which they breed," said study author Peter Fretwell, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey, in an email to Gizmodo. "Finding more penguins and studying their movements and distribution will be important if we are to understand their struggle to survive in the warming Antarctic environment."</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53549299" target="_blank">BBC</a> noted, the emperors' whole life cycle is centered on the availability of sea ice, and if this is diminished in the decades ahead, as climate models project, then the animals' numbers will suffer. Some models predict that penguin colonies will drop by 90 percent, according to The Guardian.</p><p>The discoveries were made by spotting the distinctive red-brown guano patches the birds leave on the ice, according to The Guardian. The findings were made possible by higher-resolution images from a new satellite, as previous scans were unable to pick up smaller colonies.</p><p>The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite was launched in June 2015 and has a resolution of 10 meters. This enabled a search for the smaller penguin colonies. Emperor penguins were expected to be present at fairly regular intervals around the coast of Antarctica, so the search was targeted in areas where none were known. "In every gap where we thought there might be a colony, we found one," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The European Space Agency makes these images available online, so the team was able to analyze images from 2016, 2018 and 2019. By searching the images for "small areas of brown pixels," or clumps of penguin guano, and targeting their searches by looking at areas near known colonies and breeding habitat, the researchers were able to find these new communities, according to Gizmodo.</p><p>The next step is to direct satellites with very high, 30cm-resolution cameras over the colonies to enable the penguins to be counted. "It is dark at the moment in Antarctica, so we can't count them yet," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported. "The sun will come up either later this month or next month in most of these locations, and then we will start."</p>
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Australia Wants to Build a Huge Concrete Runway in Antarctica. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea
19 July
Insights + Opinion
The Penguin suspicious on the shore looking at the camera, on January 3 in King George Island, Antarctica. Alessandro Dahan / Getty Images
By Shaun Brooks and Julia Jabour
Australia wants to build a 2.7-kilometre concrete runway in Antarctica, the world's biggest natural reserve. The plan, if approved, would have the largest footprint of any project in the continent's history.
The runway is part of an aerodrome to be constructed near Davis Station, one of Australia's three permanent bases in Antarctica. It would be the first concrete runway on the continent.
<p>
The plan is subject to federal environmental approval. It coincides with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2506-3" target="_blank">new research</a> published this week showing Antarctica's wild places need better protection. Human activity across Antarctica has been extensive in the past 200 years – particularly in the coastal, ice-free areas where most biodiversity is found.
</p>
<p class=""><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shaun-brooks-698938" target="_blank">Shaun Brooks</a> is a University Associate at the University of Tasmania. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julia-jabour-90480" target="_blank">Julia Jabour</a> is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania.</em><br/></p><p><em>
Disclosure statement:
</em></p><p><em>
Shaun Brooks receives funding from the the Australian Antarctic Science Program (Project 4565 - Conservation Planning for Antarctic Stations).
</em></p><p><em>
Julia Jabour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
</em></p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-wants-to-build-a-huge-concrete-runway-in-antarctica-heres-why-thats-a-bad-idea-139596" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
</p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139596/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p>The area around Davis Station is possibly Antarctica's <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00025586" target="_blank">most significant</a> coastal, ice-free area. It features <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">unique lakes</a>, fjords, <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/antarct/aca/nsf01151/aca2_spa143.pdf" target="_blank">fossil sites</a> and wildlife.</p><p>Australia has successfully operated Davis Station since 1957 with existing transport arrangements. While the development may win Australia some strategic influence in Antarctica, it's at odds with our strong history of environmental leadership in the region.</p>
Year-Round Access
<p>The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), a federal government agency, <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/travel-and-logistics/aviation/davis-aerodrome/about-the-project/" target="_blank">argues</a> the runway would allow year-round aviation access between Hobart and Antarctica.</p><p>Presently, the only Australian flights to Antarctica take place at the beginning and end of summer. Aircraft land at an aerodrome near the Casey research station, with interconnecting flights to other stations and sites on the continent. The stations are inaccessible by both air and ship in winter.</p><p>The AAD says year-round access to Antarctica would provide significant science benefits, including:</p><ul><li>better understanding sea level rise and other climate change impacts</li><li>opportunities to study wildlife across the annual lifecycle of key species including krill, penguins, seals and seabirds</li><li>allowing scientists to research through winter.</li></ul><p><span></span>Leading international scientists <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/delivering-21st-century-antarctic-and-southern-ocean-science/A5E6D29C34AA2794140C6B4966E63048" target="_blank">had called for</a> improved, environmentally responsible access to Antarctica to support 21st-century science. However, the aerodrome project is likely to reduce access for scientists to Antarctica for years, due to the need to house construction workers.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ4MTAzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDEzNDgxM30.RVb1t_EnWasyVJHVeBb7jIi6hj99nSqzwh8fdTkYCFM/img.jpg?width=980" id="4d929" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f287d23aabb057f01a298ca732f2c760" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Australia says the runway would have significant science benefits. Australian Antarctic Division
Australia: An Environmental Leader?
<p>Australia has traditionally been considered an environmental leader in Antarctica. For example, in 1989 under the Hawke government, it urged the world to abandon a mining convention in favour of a new deal to ban mining on the continent.</p><p>Australia's <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-us/antarctic-strategy-and-action-plan/20-year-action-plan/" target="_blank">20 Year Action Plan</a> promotes "leadership in environmental stewardship in Antarctica", pledging to "minimise the environmental impact of Australia's activities".</p><p>But the aerodrome proposal appears at odds with that goal. It would cover 2.2 square kilometres, increasing the total "<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/what-is-footprint-in-antarctica-proposing-a-set-of-definitions/7FBDB26F3AF2F5A6C157FCB2E6A2D996" target="_blank">disturbance footprint</a>" of all nations on the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0237-y" target="_blank">continent</a> by 40%. It would also mean Australia has the biggest footprint of any nation, overtaking the United States.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ4MTAzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTYwNDQ2Nn0.6sP4AJoMEMoSyXIbRRmW5lnDfsF0-3hZLNNyQFmt4xo/img.jpg?width=980" id="cd97c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76cba1112e65a1b43a38c714419b4eac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The contribution of disturbance footprint from countries in Antarctica measured from Brooks et al. 2019, with Australia's share increasing to 35% including the aerodrome proposal. Shaun Brooks
<p>Within this footprint, environmental effects will also be intense. <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">Construction</a> will require more than three million cubic metres of earthworks - levelling 60 vertical metres of hills and valleys along the length of the runway. This will inevitably cause dust emissions – on the windiest continent on Earth - and the effect of this on plants and animals in Antarctica is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102019000440" target="_blank">poorly understood</a>.</p><p>Wilson's storm petrels that nest at the site will be displaced. Native lichens, fungi and algae will be destroyed, and irreparable damage is expected at adjacent lakes.</p><p>Weddell seals breed within 500 metres of the proposed runway site. Federal environment officials <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">recognise</a> the dust from construction and subsequent noise from low flying aircraft have the potential to disturb these breeding colonies.</p><p>The proposed area is also important breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Eight breeding sites in the region are listed as "important bird areas". Federal environment officials state the penguins are likely to be impacted by human disturbance, dust, and noise from construction of the runway, with particular concern for oil spills and aircraft operations.</p><p>The summer population at Davis Station will need to almost double from 120 to 250 <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">during construction</a>. This will require new, permanent infrastructure and increase the station's fuel and water consumption, and sewage discharged into the environment.</p><p>The AAD has proposed measures to limit environmental damage. These include gathering baseline data (against which to measure the project's impact), analysing potential effects on birds and marine mammals and limiting disturbance where practicable.</p><p>But full details won't be provided until later in the assessment process. We expect Australia will implement these measures to a high standard, but they will not offset the project's environmental damage.</p>
Playing Politics
<p>So given the environmental concern, why is Australia so determined to build the aerodrome? We believe the answer largely lies in Antarctic politics.</p><p>Australian officials <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/site/assets/files/54470/future_science_opportunities_synthesis_report_final.pdf" target="_blank">have said</a> the project would "contribute to both our presence and influence" on the continent. Influence in Antarctica has traditionally corresponded to the strength of a nation's scientific program, its infrastructure presence and engagement in international decision-making.</p><p>Australia is a well-regarded member of the Antarctic Treaty. It was an original signatory and claims sovereignty over 42% of the continent. It also has a solid physical and scientific presence, maintaining three large year-round research stations.</p><p>But other nations are also vying for influence. China is constructing its fifth research station. New Zealand <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/113844159/scott-base-rebuild-to-cost-250-million" target="_blank">is planning</a> a NZ$250 million upgrade to Scott Base. And on King George Island, six stations have been built <a href="https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.18206" target="_blank">within a 5km radius</a>, each run by different nations. This presence is hard to justify on the basis of scientific interest alone.</p>Getting Our Priorities Straight
<p>We believe there are greater and more urgent opportunities for Australia to assert its leadership in Antarctica.</p><p>For example both Casey and Mawson stations – Australia's two other permanent bases – discharge sewage into the pristine marine environment with little treatment. And outdated fuel technology at Australia's three stations regularly causes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024" target="_blank">diesel spills</a>.</p><p>At Wilkes station, which Australia abandoned in the 1960s, thousands of tonnes of contaminants have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12383" target="_blank">left behind</a>.</p><p>Australia should fix such problems before adding more potentially damaging infrastructure. This would meet our environmental treaty obligations and show genuine Antarctic leadership.</p>Related Articles Around the Web
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The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, where the temperature readings informing the study were taken. Christopher Michel / CC BY 2.0
This year's record-breaking heat wave in Siberia has drawn attention to the fact that the climate crisis is warming the Arctic about twice as fast as the mid latitudes. But things are also heating up on the other side of Earth.
<p>The South Pole — the most remote place on Earth — has heated more than three times faster than the global average over the last 30 years, a study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0815-z" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change Monday</a> found.</p><p>"[It's] the ultimate canary in the coal mine," University of Colorado researcher Sharon E. Stammerjohn, who was not involved with the study but wrote a commentary on it, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/climate/south-pole-warming-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "One that we can no longer ignore."</p>
<div id="4759a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="412955a354d44c72f77a0ae4f447b922"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277727551369216006" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Research led by #VicUniWgtn’s Dr Kyle Clem with a team including @CubaRaglanGuy shows the South Pole is warming mor… https://t.co/lvho9PEMWm</div> — Victoria University of Wellington (@Victoria University of Wellington)<a href="https://twitter.com/VicUniWgtn/statuses/1277727551369216006">1593468961.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The researchers looked at 60 years of data from the South Pole and found that its average temperature had risen by more than 1.83 Celsius degrees since 1989, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/06/30/south-pole-warming-three-times-faster-than-rest-of-earth-study.html" target="_blank">AFP reported</a>. The pole is now warming at a rate of about 0.6 degrees Celsius per decade, compared with the global average of around 0.2 degrees Celsius.</p><p>"While temperatures were known to be warming across West <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctica</a> and the Antarctic Peninsula during the 20th century, the South Pole was cooling," lead study author and Victoria University of Wellington researcher Kyle Clem told AFP. "It was suspected that this part of Antarctica ... might be immune to/isolated from warming. We found this is not the case any more."</p>
<p>The warming can partly be explained by natural climate cycles. The warming trend at the South Pole began as sea-surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific also rose as part of an oscillation with decades-long intervals. This tropical warming ultimately warmed the South Pole too, as The New York Times explained:</p><blockquote>The warming ocean heated the air, which caused ripples of high and low pressure in the atmosphere that reached all the way to the Antarctic Peninsula, more than 5,000 miles away. Scientists call these kinds of long-distance links teleconnections.<br><br>Coupled with the stronger westerly winds, which are part of another long-term pattern, the ripples led to stronger storms in the Weddell Sea, east of the peninsula. These rotating, or cyclonic, storms, swept warmer air from the South Atlantic Ocean into the interior of the continent.</blockquote>
<p>However, while the rapid South Pole warming could all be explained by natural variability, Clem said it was unlikely that it would have warmed so much without the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</p><p>The researchers ran more than 200 climate models based on greenhouse gas concentrations recorded from 1989 to 2018 and found that these emissions likely caused one degree of the 1.8 degrees of warming recorded at the South Pole, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/south-pole-warming-three-times-faster-than-rest-of-the-world-our-research-shows" target="_blank">Clem wrote for The Guardian</a>. The researchers then ran models to see what 30-year temperature swings in the region would look like without greenhouse gas emissions and found that the warming they had detected was too much for 99.9 percent of them.</p><p>"It appears the effects from tropical variability have worked together with increasing greenhouse gases, and the end result is one of the strongest warming trends on the planet," Clem wrote.</p>
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Scientific research posts, military facilities and tourism have turned the area around King George Island (pictured) in the South Shetland Islands into "one of the most contaminated regions of Antarctica." Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Rebecca Staudenmaier
For the first time, scientists have discovered microplastics inside small organisms living in the soil in Antarctica, according to a new study published on Wednesday.
<p>"Plastics are thus entering the short Antarctic terrestrial food webs and represent a new potential stressor to polar ecosystems already facing climate change and increasing human activities," said the authors of the study, which was published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.</p><p>The research team, which was headed by Italy's University of Siena, collected organisms from a piece of polystyrene foam that was covered in moss and lichens on King George Island.</p><p>Using an infrared imaging technique, researchers found pieces of polystyrene — which is used in styrofoam — in the guts of collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus, or springtails. </p><p>The small organisms are frequently the "dominant species" in areas of Antarctica that are not covered by ice, typically feeding on lichens and micro-algae.</p><p>Researchers said the springtails likely consumed the plastic fragments while eating their usual food.</p>
Dangers of Plastic Pollution
<p>The authors of the study said the traces indicate the microplastic pollution may have already "deeply" infiltrated Antarctica's remote land-based food system.</p><p>"The implications of plastic ingestion by this species include the potential redistribution of microplastics through the soil profile and transfer to their common predators, the moss mites," Elisa Bergami of the University of Siena told news agency AFP.</p><p>Although plastic pollution in the oceans is already widely known and well-documented, Bergami said that less attention is being paid to Antarctica's land contamination.</p><p>The presence of plastics in one of the world's most remote food chains could potentially stress Antarctica's fragile ecosystem even further.</p><p>Scientific research posts, military facilities and tourism have turned the area around King George Island in the South Shetland Islands into "one of the most contaminated regions of Antarctica," researchers said.</p>From Your Site Articles
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World's Second-Largest Egg Found in Antarctica Probably Hatched Giant Ancient Reptile
18 June
Science
An artist's interpretation of a baby mosasaur emerging from an egg. John Maisano / Jackson School of Geosciences
The first fossil egg discovered in Antarctica is also the largest soft-shelled egg ever found and the second-largest egg of any kind, after the extinct elephant bird.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The more than 11-by-7-inch egg was first discovered in 2011, according to a <a href="https://news.utexas.edu/2020/06/17/egg-from-antarctica-is-big-and-might-belong-to-an-extinct-sea-lizard/" target="_blank">University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) press release</a>, but researchers only recently figured out that it was a 66 million-year-old egg. Their findings, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2377-7" target="_blank">published in Nature Wednesday</a>, are helping transform our understanding of ancient reptiles.</p><p>"A soft-shelled fossil egg like this is a rare gem," Princeton University evolutionary biologist Mary Caswell Stoddard, who was involved with the research, told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/877679868/scientists-find-the-biggest-soft-shelled-egg-ever-nicknamed-the-thing?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">NPR</a>. "The lack of soft-shelled fossil eggs, which are extraordinarily rare, makes it challenging to flesh out a detailed picture of egg evolution in vertebrates. This discovery helps provide one critical piece of the puzzle."</p>
<div id="d646e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="22a76c9de9f12701d977506082bcdbee"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1273279909734100993" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Very excited to introduce Antarcticoolithus bradyi, the largest soft-shelled #fossil #egg found to date! Our study… https://t.co/eMBn2ghLLn</div> — Julia Clarke (@Julia Clarke)<a href="https://twitter.com/jclarkepaleolab/statuses/1273279909734100993">1592408561.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The egg is so unique partly because of what the researchers think it hatched: a giant marine reptile like a mosasaur that was not thought to lay eggs at all.</p><p>"It shows their reproductive mode may have been very similar to that seen in some living lizards and snakes where there is a very thin eggshell present on an egg from which the baby emerges almost immediately," study coauthor and professor at UT Austin's Jackson School's department of geological sciences Julia Clarke told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/world/soft-dinosaur-eggs-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>To make this determination, the researchers compared the egg-to-body size ratio of 259 modern reptiles. They then calculated that the animal that came out of the egg would have needed to be more than 20 feet long, excluding the tail.</p>
<div id="f3add" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5813bad10961c940bb4942c7df1eff0f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1273291232916226050" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The egg's structure is very similar to quick-hatching eggs laid by some snakes and lizards today! Imagine this, but… https://t.co/ZiE5UQj9kg</div> — UT Jackson School of Geosciences (@UT Jackson School of Geosciences)<a href="https://twitter.com/txgeosciences/statuses/1273291232916226050">1592411261.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>They also found fossil evidence of baby and adult mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the same rock formation where the egg was discovered.</p><p>"Many authors have hypothesized that this was sort of a nursery site with shallow protected water, a cove environment where the young ones would have had a quiet setting to grow up," lead author and UT Austin postdoctoral researcher Lucas Legendre said in the press release.</p><p>But these discoveries might not have been made at all if Clarke hadn't visited Chile's National Museum of Natural History in 2018.</p>
<p>The egg, which looked like a deflated football, had been brought to the museum by Chilean scientists who found it in Antarctica in 2011, according to the press release. Unsure of what it was, they dubbed it "The Thing."</p><p>"It was weird enough that they decided to collect it, even though it wasn't clear what it was. It definitely wasn't bone, but it was strikingly unusual," Clarke told NPR.</p><p>Coauthor David Rubilar-Rogers was one of the discovering scientists, according to the press release. He showed it to every geologist who visited the museum but received no answers, until Clarke arrived.</p><p>"I showed it to her and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be a deflated egg!" Rubilar-Rogers said.</p>
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The sun shines over the Southern Ocean in Antarctica. Rebecca Yale / Moment / Getty Images Plus
Atmospheric researchers have pinpointed the spot on Earth with the cleanest air. It's not in the midst of a remote jungle, nor on a deserted tropical island. Instead, the cleanest air in the world is in the air above the frigid Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, as CNN reported.
<p>Air pollution is a global public health problem that claims 7 million lives every year, stunts the growth of children, and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and pulmonary disorders. So, if you're seeking the cleanest air in the world, you will need to pack a very warm coat.</p><p>The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica has the air that shows the smallest concentration of particles caused by human pollution. The first of its kind study of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean was conducted by researchers from Colorado State University, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/cleanest-air-intl-scli-scn-climate/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
<p>The study, which described the air as "truly pristine," was published Monday in the journal of the <em><a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/28/2000134117" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></em>.</p><p>The researchers noted that the air that forms the lower clouds in the area was free from any particles produced by man-made activity or dust from other continents.</p>
<p>The study sampling of the air was taken from a research ship that sailed from Tasmania to within 24 miles of the Antarctic ice edge to conduct "bacterial profiling" from air filter samples. The scientists were surprised to find that the air was so clear there was barely any bacterial DNA to profile, according to <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/antarctica-scientists-reveal-location-of-worlds-cleanest-air-11999692#:~:text=Experts%20say%20Antarctica%20appears%20isolated,other%20continents%20to%20the%20north.&text=The%20world's%20cleanest%20air%20is,pristine%22%20and%20unaffected%20by%20pollution." target="_blank">Sky News</a>.</p><p>"We were able to use the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean (SO) as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the lower atmosphere," said Thomas Hill, a researcher in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University and a coauthor on the study, in a university <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-atmospheric-scientists-identify-cleanest-air-on-earth-in-first-of-its-kind-study/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>Hill went on to explain how the airborne bacteria is a diagnostic tool to infer the properties of the lower atmosphere.</p><p>"For example, that the aerosols controlling the properties of SO clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents. Overall, it suggests that the SO is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities," he added.</p>
<p>The scientists analyzed the structure of the airborne microbes, which are dispersed by the wind and travel thousands of miles. The researchers looked at the microbes' DNA, tracked their sources, and analyzed wind trajectories to see where they came from. The microbes they analyzed around Antarctica were from the ocean as opposed to from an airborne pollutant like coal emissions, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/cleanest-air-intl-scli-scn-climate/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>According to the university <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-atmospheric-scientists-identify-cleanest-air-on-earth-in-first-of-its-kind-study/" target="_blank">statement</a>, the bacterial composition of the microbes also was differentiated into broad latitudinal zones, which suggested that aerosols from distant land masses and human activities, such as pollution or soil emissions driven by land use change, were not traveling south into Antarctic air.</p>
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The Earth's atmosphere. NASA
By Jeremy Deaton
You may have heard about the hole in the ozone layer, which hovers over Antarctica. It has shrunk over time thanks to policies that curbed the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. In the nearly 40 years that NASA has kept track, it has never been smaller. That's the good news.
<p>The bad news is that a separate hole in the ozone layer briefly <a href="https://www.livescience.com/arctic-ozone-hole-closes.html" target="_blank">opened up</a> in the Arctic in March before closing in April, and climate change may be partly to blame.</p><p>This isn't the first <a href="https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/NH.html" target="_blank">such rift</a> to develop in the Arctic, but it is the largest. Scientists say that in March, a stratospheric polar vortex — a band of strong, frigid winds circling the pole — corralled chlorine and bromine that chewed away at the ozone layer. Scientists said that <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2006GL026731" target="_blank">climate</a> <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2003GL018844" target="_blank">change</a> may have set the stage for a colder, and thus more powerful, polar vortex.</p><p>"In those years when a vortex can spin and set itself up and be undisturbed, it's getting colder and colder," said Ross Salawitch, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland. Cold air strengthens polar vortexes, allowing them to deal more damage to the ozone layer, he said.</p>
<p>This year's Arctic polar vortex was unusually strong and long-lived, helping to deplete the ozone layer. At the same time, currents that would normally deliver ozone from surrounding areas were stagnant. The bruising was far less severe than what is typically seen over the South Pole, though. At the South Pole, stratospheric polar vortexes are reliably strong thanks to the extreme cold, so the ozone layer regularly thins.</p><p>In a stratospheric polar vortex, high-altitude <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud" target="_blank">clouds form</a> from trace gasses in the atmosphere. Pollutants containing chlorine and bromine are essentially benign until they run into one of these clouds. Then they transform into chemicals capable of terrorizing the ozone layer.</p><p>They still need sunlight to do their dirty work, however. That comes at the start of spring —around September in the Southern Hemisphere and around March in the Northern Hemisphere. As the days get longer, these chemicals react with sunlight to deplete stratospheric ozone.</p><p>Because Antarctica is so isolated from the rest of the world, a strong polar vortex can form undisturbed. That's not the case in the Arctic, where the mix of land and water surrounding the North Pole produces more dynamic weather that can weaken or disrupt a polar vortex.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMwNjMxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTQwNDE1N30.gWej2PmnNRQE8RsCuiF3UvmowoEgPqZXsKE4i8ZLvNo/img.jpg?width=980" id="8a1e9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="883655d17c29fcbc095e4aedcd0198a1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Polar stratospheric clouds activate the chemicals that deplete the ozone layer. NASA
<p>Ozone holes rarely form at the North Pole — the last one appeared in 2011 — and they are typically short-lived. But what happens in the Arctic does not stay in Arctic. As a result of the damage, the ozone layer is now a little thinner everywhere else. While it will repair itself over time, the recent polar vortex has likely slowed the recovery.</p><p>At the South Pole, the ozone layer tears open yearly. Scientists first discovered the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985. Researchers determined that it was caused by chemicals containing chlorine and bromine. These include <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/chlorofluorocarbon" target="_blank">chlorofluorocarbons</a>, which are found in air conditioners, refrigerators and spray cans, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/halon" target="_blank">halons</a>, which are found in fire extinguishers, and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ods-phaseout/methyl-bromide" target="_blank">methyl bromide</a>, which is used to kill weeds, insects and other pests. The discovery was met with alarm, as the ozone layer filters out dangerous ultraviolet radiation, helping to sustain life on Earth.</p><p>"If there was no ozone layer, the ultraviolet radiation would sterilize the Earth's surface," said Paul Newman, chief scientist for earth sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Crop yields go down as ultraviolet exposure goes up." In humans, ultraviolet radiation can cause skin cancer and cataracts, and can weaken the immune system.</p><p>To restore the ozone layer, in 1987, countries adopted the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Montreal-Protocol" target="_blank">Montreal Protocol</a> to stem the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. It worked. Over time, the hole grew smaller and smaller, and the ozone layer began to heal. By the middle of this century, scientists expect it will be fully restored.</p>
<p>While many Americans <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/15/is-the-ozone-hole-causing-climate-change/" target="_blank">mistakenly</a> <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2010_10_Americans%E2%80%99-Knowledge-of-Climate-Change.pdf" target="_blank">believe</a> that the hole in the ozone layer is driving climate change, it may be that the reverse is true — that climate change is harming the ozone layer.</p><p>Carbon pollution is acting like a blanket, trapping heat in the lower atmosphere. As a result, it is both warming the surface of the Earth and preventing heat from reaching the upper atmosphere. As such, the lower atmosphere is warming, while the upper atmosphere is actually cooling. Polar vortexes grow stronger in the cold, producing more of the high-altitude clouds that activate the chemicals that eat up the ozone layer.</p><p>"The temperatures in the stratosphere will probably be decreasing somewhat, and so that may slow down the recovery of the ozone layer," Manney said. "We have this situation in the Arctic, where we have had a couple of winters in the last couple of decades that have been much colder than usual."</p><p>Newman believes that falling temperatures will do little to deplete the ozone layer, however. He is more concerned with how climate change will alter currents that replenish Arctic ozone or break up the Arctic polar vortex.</p>
<p>"We don't really see a strong cooling of the Arctic stratosphere," he said. "The question in my mind is rather, 'What is the impact of climate change on these large-scale weather systems?'"</p><p>Salawitch said that it is difficult to determine what, exactly, the future holds for the ozone layer in the Arctic. Models disagree as to how much or how fast temperatures will change at the North Pole, or what that means for the polar vortex. As such, some say Arctic ozone will continue to thin, while others project a speedy recovery.</p><p>Scientists emphasized that the recent ozone hole in the Arctic would have been substantially worse had countries not taken steps to curb pollution. They said the episode speaks to the importance of the Montreal Protocol.</p><p>"We do have to keep in mind that the Montreal Protocol was very successful in getting the world to stop emitting these chlorofluorocarbons. The ozone layer is starting to recover," Manney said. "It's a remarkable success story."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/another-hole-in-the-ozone-layer-climate-change-may-be-to-blame-f86825b19135" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Coastal Antarctica has seen has a curious phenomenon over the last few years. The green snow that hugs parts of its shores has started to spread farther inland. And it's all caused by the climate crisis.
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16018-w" target="_blank">new study</a> published in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em> on Wednesday found that the green glow in the snow is actually caused by a microscopic <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/algae">algae</a> blooming on the surface of the snow, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/green-snow-algae-antarctica-spreading-climate-change/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>.</p><p>The researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK and the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/climate-change-will-turn-coastal-antarctica-green/" target="_blank">British Antarctic Survey</a> say the algae will spread as the planet heats up because warming temperatures are creating more of the slushy conditions that the algae need in order to thrive, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/climate-change-turning-parts-antarctica-green-say-scientists-algae" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Where the algae are at their most dense, their bright green shine alters the appearance of the snow and is actually visible from space. The scientists also say that as the algae spreads, it will invite in other species that will feast on it as a potent source of nutrition, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/climate-change-turning-parts-antarctica-green-say-scientists-algae" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>To conduct the study, the researchers looked at satellite data gathered between 2017 and 2019 and combined it with on-the-ground measurements over two summers in Antarctica. That process allowed the scientists to map the microscopic algae as they bloomed across the snow of the Antarctic Peninsula, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/world/green-snow-antarctica-climate-change-intl-scli-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. The data was gleaned from images collected by the European Space Agency satellites with measurements from Antarctica's Ryder Bay, Adelaide Island, the Fildes Peninsula and King George Island.</p><p>What is reported is actually a conservative estimate since the data only included green algae. The satellite is only capable of picking up green, which means the data ignored the red and orange algae that accompany it.</p>
<p>"We now have a baseline of where the algal blooms are and we can see whether the blooms will start increasing as the models suggest in the future," said Matt Davey of the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-antarctica/climate-change-turning-antarcticas-snow-green-idUSKBN22W16F" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>Even though mosses and lichens are the dominant plant species in Antarctica, the new mapping identified 1,679 separate algal blooms that are a key component in the continent's ability to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-antarctica/climate-change-turning-antarcticas-snow-green-idUSKBN22W16F" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>"The algal blooms in Antarctica are equivalent to about the amount of carbon that's being omitted by 875,000 average UK petrol car journeys," Davey said to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-antarctica/climate-change-turning-antarcticas-snow-green-idUSKBN22W16F" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. "That seems a lot but in terms of the global carbon budget, it's insignificant. It does take up carbon from the atmosphere but it won't make any serious dent in the amount of carbon dioxide being put in the atmosphere at the moment."</p>
<p>The green snow appears along the Antarctic coast, which are "warmer" areas. There, the average temperatures reach just above freezing in the summer.</p><p>The researchers found that the distribution of green snow algae is strongly influenced by marine birds and mammals, because their excrement serves as an effective fertilizer. Over 60 percent of blooms were found near penguin colonies, and others were found near birds' nesting sites, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/green-snow-algae-antarctica-spreading-climate-change/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>.</p><p>"This is a significant advance in our understanding of land-based life on Antarctica, and how it might change in the coming years as the climate warms," said Davey in a <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/antarctica-turning-green" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>In order to flourish, the algae need a ready supply of water, which they should have an ample amount of as the planet heats up and snow on the Antarctica Peninsula melts.</p>
<p>"As Antarctica warms, we predict the overall mass of snow algae will increase, as the spread to higher ground will significantly outweigh the loss of small island patches of algae," said co-lead author Dr. Andrew Gray, of the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh, as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/green-snow-algae-antarctica-spreading-climate-change/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> reported.</p><p>And the algae will help more snow melt.</p><p>"It's very dark — a green snow algal bloom will reflect about 45 percent of light hitting it whereas fresh snow will reflect about 80 percent of the light hitting it, so it will increase the rate of snow melt in a localized area," said Gray to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/world/green-snow-antarctica-climate-change-intl-scli-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
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King penguins on the island of South Georgia in the Bay of Isles, Antarctica on Oct. 31, 2017. Martin Zwick / REDA&CO / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A colony of king penguins in Antarctica emit so much nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, in their poop that researchers went a little "cuckoo," while studying them, according to Agence France Presse, which reported on a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
<p>The study looked at the effects of a king penguin colony's activity on soil greenhouse gas fluxes in South Georgia, an island just north of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a>. One finding in particular was notably unique—penguin feces, or guano, produce extremely high levels of nitrous oxide, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/world/king-penguins-laughing-gas-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>The scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark were investigating the effect of glacier retreat and penguin activity on greenhouse gas emissions. They decided to take samples from South Georgia Island since it his home to over 150,000 breeding pairs of king penguins, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/penguin-feces-laughing-gas-scientists-1505392" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported.</p>
<p>"After nosing about in guano for several hours, one goes completely cuckoo," lead researcher Bo Elberling said in a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200519114237.htm" target="_blank">statement</a>, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/penguin-feces-laughing-gas-scientists-1505392" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported. "One begins to feel ill and get a headache. The small nitrous oxide cylinders that you see lying in and floating around Copenhagen are no match for this heavy dose, which results from a combination of nitrous oxide with hydrogen sulphide and other gases."</p><p>Penguin poop is known to create huge amounts of nitrous oxide because the penguins' diet is rich in fish and krill that have absorbed large amounts of nitrogen via phytoplankton. The nitrogen is then released from the guano. When it hits the soil and interacts with the air, it is converted to nitrous oxide.</p>
<p>Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas, with a warming effect that is 300 times what carbon dioxide produces, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/penguin-feces-laughing-gas-scientists-1505392" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. It's also used as a sedative for dental procedures, as a recreational drug and in agriculture.</p><p>"Penguin guano produces significantly high levels of nitrous oxide around their colonies. The maximum emissions are about 100 times higher than in a recently fertilized Danish field," Elberling said in a University of Copenhagen <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200519114237.htm" target="_blank">press release</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-suffer-headaches-when-penguin-poop-turns-into-laughing-gas/" target="_blank">CNET</a> reported.</p>
<p>On their own, the penguin guano is not nearly strong enough to affect the earth's atmosphere, but it is clear that the penguins affect their local environment, which is important as colonies grow and move to adapt to a changing climate, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/world/king-penguins-laughing-gas-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"A future expansion of penguins into newly available ice-free polar coastal areas may therefore markedly increase the local (greenhouse gas) budget," the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719352477?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">study</a> says.</p>
<p>"Penguins have been considered to be an ideal 'bio-indicator' of ecosystem and environmental changes, as changes in populations and colonies reflect direct and indirect ecological responses to climatic changes," the authors wrote in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719352477?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">study</a>. "Changes in penguin colonies, penguin activity and the associated addition of guano are known to significantly influence terrestrial soil and ecosystem processes and thereby can turn soils into [greenhouse gas] emission hotspots."</p><p>Eberling added that future research may add to an understanding of how the droppings affect the earth and its atmosphere, which could help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/world/king-penguins-laughing-gas-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p>
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Antarctica and Greenland Raised Sea Levels More Than Half an Inch in Just 16 Years, New NASA Data Shows
01 May
Climate
Greenland's fast-melting Kangerdlugssup glacier. NASA / Jim Yungel
Greenland and Antarctica have raised global sea levels by more than half an inch in the last 16 years, according to data from the most advanced laser that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ever launched into space to observe the earth.
<p>While the figures themselves are consistent with other studies, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/climate/antarctica-ice-climate-change.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_MBE_p_20200501&instance_id=18124&nl=morning-briefing&regi_id=88631294&section=whatElse&segment_id=26351&te=1&user_id=d8eb7cee9d3c5ab39515239b6ec54d19" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>, the satellite laser allows researchers a much more precise picture of how polar ice is changing over time, which helps determine the role of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and plan for future <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>.</p><p>"We've all been waiting for this new dataset," Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory research professor Robin Bell <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848398472/antarctica-and-greenland-are-losing-thousands-of-gigatons-of-ice-thats-a-lot?utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&fbclid=IwAR2t-fTSchEfWMFJe_R91Jy86koAqTfmGlewTvq9eG6z0lzpdM1w8GjogGY" target="_blank">told NPR</a>.</p>
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<p>The study, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/29/science.aaz5845" target="_blank">published in Science Thursday</a>, combines data from two NASA satellites: the original Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which took measurements from 2003 to 2009, and ICESat-2, launched in 2018. The two satellites allowed researchers to measure changes in ice mass from 2003 to 2019, and to calculate that Greenland and Antarctica contributed 0.55 inches to sea level rise during that time. That's around a third of the global total, which was also driven by the expansion of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> as they warm, NPR explained.</p><p>"If you watch a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glacier</a> or ice sheet for a month, or a year, you're not going to learn much about what the climate is doing to it," University of Washington glaciologist and lead study author Ben Smith said in a <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2981/nasa-space-laser-missions-map-16-years-of-ice-sheet-loss/?fbclid=IwAR0vi9r5VM03t_d9hDoceJSHkeEsxDtzOIApDy3x4TniEx4UowY02_j-bSM" target="_blank">NASA press release</a>. "We now have a 16-year span between ICESat and ICESat-2 and can be much more confident that the changes we're seeing in the ice have to do with the long-term changes in the climate."</p>
<p>The data also revealed that Greenland's ice sheet lost an average of 200 gigatons of ice per year and Antarctica's lost an average of 118. That's more than 5,000 gigatons total, NPR reported. To put that in perspective, one gigaton is enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.</p><p>But the satellite data also helped show how the ice was being lost. In Antarctica, the East actually gained mass, probably because of increased precipitation, The New York Times reported. But this was offset by losses in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. In West Antarctica, 30 percent of that loss was due to floating ice, which either calves icebergs or melts from below due to warm ocean water. While this ice cannot contribute directly to sea level rise because it is already floating, its loss destabilizes the so-called "grounded ice" that can.</p><p>"It's like an apple tart and the ice shelves are like the wall of pastry around the edges of the tart," Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego glaciologist and study coauthor Helen Fricker explained to NPR. "And if those walls are too thin or they're not baked well enough, then the filling will ooze out."</p><p>In Greenland, two thirds of the ice loss was due to surface melting, something that rarely occurs in Antarctica, The New York Times said. Greenland also lost a lot of mass from its coastal glaciers, according to NASA. Its Kangerdulgssuaq and Jakobshavn glaciers have shrunken by 14 to 20 feet per year.</p>
<p>NASA explained why its satellites were able to provide such a detailed portrait:</p><blockquote>ICESat-2's instrument is a laser altimeter, which sends 10,000 pulses of light a second down to Earth's surface, and times how long it takes to return to the satellite – to within a billionth of a second. The instrument's pulse rate allows for a dense map of measurement over the ice sheet; its high precision allows scientists to determine how much an ice sheet changes over a year to within an inch.<br><br>The researchers took tracks of earlier ICESat measurements and overlaid the tracks of ICESat-2 measurements from 2019, and took data from the tens of millions of sites where the two data sets intersected. That gave them the elevation change, but to get to how much ice has been lost, the researchers developed a new model to convert volume change to mass change. The model calculated densities across the ice sheets to allow the total mass loss to be calculated.</blockquote><p>This level of detail is essential for helping coastal residents and governments plan for sea level rise, which is expected to reach two to six feet by 2100, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/climate-change-antarctica-greenland-ice-melt-raised-sea-levels-by-half-inch-in-last-16-years.html" target="_blank">according to CNBC</a>.</p><p>"Our goal is to be able to tell every coastal community what they can plan on [in] the coming decades," Bell told NPR. "To be able to do that, we both need to measure how the ice is changing but also understand better why it's changing."</p>
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Antarctica before and after its hottest day on record Feb. 6. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC.
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