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>
From Your Site Articles
- Human Cooperation Can Restore Climate Patterns: The Case of the ... ›
- Antarctica Was a Rainforest During the Times of Dinosaurs, New ... ›
- Antarctica Lost Sea Ice Greater Than 4x the Size of France in 3 ... ›
- Antarctica's Ice Is Melting 5 Times Faster Than in the 90s - EcoWatch ›
- Man Swims Under East Antarctic Glacier to Highlight Impacts of the ... ›
Read More
Show Less
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
- People Eat 50,000+ Microplastics Every Year, New Study Finds ... ›
- Microplastics Found in Antarctic Sea Ice Samples for First Time ... ›
- Ocean Microplastics Are Drastically Underestimated, New Research ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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>
From Your Site Articles
- Skull of Smallest Known Dinosaur Found in 99-Million-Year Old Amber ›
- Antarctica Was a Rainforest During the Times of Dinosaurs, New ... ›
- Help Save the World's Last Dinosaur - EcoWatch ›
- Newly Discovered Wonderchicken Is the Oldest Known Ancestor of ... ›
- Giant, Possibly Carnivorous Parrot Fossils Discovered in New Zealand ›
Read More
Show Less
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>
<p><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions Set for Record Decline Due to ... ›
- Coronavirus Shutdowns Causing Huge Drops in Traffic, Air Pollution ... ›
- Blowing the Cover off the 'Cleanest Air' Illusion of the Trump ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
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
- Healing Ozone Layer Shows Why Environmental Treaties Matter ›
- Saving the Ozone Layer 30 Years Ago Slowed Global Warming ... ›
- Record Ozone Hole Over the Arctic Has Closed - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
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>
From Your Site Articles
- Antarctica Experiences First Known Heat Wave - EcoWatch ›
- Man Swims Under East Antarctic Glacier to Highlight Impacts of the ... ›
- Record-Setting Harmful Algae Blooms in New Jersey's Largest Lake ... ›
- Pink Snow in the Italian Alps Means Trouble, Scientists Say - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
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>
From Your Site Articles
- Arctic Laughing Gas Emissions Could Accelerate Global Warming ... ›
- Protecting Argentina's Imperiled Penguins From Plastic Waste ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
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>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="621570aea3d706b7da49f9c5e8369246"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhpKYVGzhRY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<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>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE4MDk2Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDc4Mzk0N30.Rbb3ARMCnLYOO3MZLifQKukrhl_Nmz5QK7c3548ah-Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="ab265" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d44020dfec235f741cdfed52bc1a1fe7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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.
From Your Site Articles
- Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea ... ›
- Scientist Suggests After Finding Warm Waters Below Greenland ›
- Trump Wants to Eliminate NASA's Climate Research Programs ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
Ozone forecast charts produced daily by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service show predictions for total vertical ozone column values for the Antarctic region up to five days ahead. European Commission Atmosphere Monitoring Service
An unusual phenomenon happened in March and April when an enormous hole in the ozone layer formed over the Arctic. Last week, though, scientists tracking the hole noticed that it has closed, as CNN reported.
<p>Unlike the infamous hole in the ozone over Antarctica, which was caused by overuse of now illegal chemicals containing chlorofluorocarbons, the hole in the Arctic was caused by a combination of factors, including low Arctic temperatures, sunlight, pollutants and a particularly strong polar vortex, according to the <a href="https://twitter.com/CopernicusECMWF/status/1253273035248975873" target="_blank">Copernicus' Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS)</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/world/ozone-hole-arctic-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<div id="3fb1d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eab7dce6aac321537db000f02efff07a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1253273035248975873" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The unprecedented 2020 northern hemisphere #OzoneHole has come to an end. The #PolarVortex split, allowing #ozone-r… https://t.co/UGQvQwSU0D</div> — Copernicus ECMWF (@Copernicus ECMWF)<a href="https://twitter.com/CopernicusECMWF/statuses/1253273035248975873">1587638550.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"These two are really different animals," said Paul Newman, the chief scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, as <a href="https://mashable.com/article/ozone-hole-arctic/" target="_blank">Mashable</a> reported. "This [Arctic ozone hole] is not comparable to the Antarctic ozone hole. If this was happening over the Antarctic we would be shouting for joy."</p><p>The hole over Antarctica opens up every year from August until October. However, it has improved dramatically since ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons were banned in the 1994 Montreal Protocol. Last year, the Antarctic ozone hole was at its smallest since it was first discovered, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/world/ozone-hole-arctic-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>While the COVID-19 lockdowns have improved air quality around the world and helped wildlife, the drops in pollution did not cause the ozone hole to close up.</p><p>"COVID19 and the associated lockdowns probably had nothing to do with this," <a href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1253273035248975873" target="_blank">CAMS said on Twitter</a>. "It's been driven by an unusually strong and long-lived polar vortex, and isn't related to air quality changes."</p><p>The hole in the ozone above the Arctic started in March when unusual conditions trapped cold air over the North Pole for several weeks in a row. That triggered a circle of cold air, known as a polar vortex, which led to clouds high in the atmosphere. Those clouds interacted with pollutants from human emissions and depleted the ozone gases above the Arctic. The hole it opened up was roughly three times the size of Greenland.</p>
<p>The ozone layer, which sits between 9 and 22 miles from the earth's surface, shields the planet from the sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. The hole above the Arctic would have only posed a threat to humans if it had traveled or expanded farther south, as <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/24/largest-ever-hole-in-the-ozone-layer-above-arctic-finally-closes" target="_blank">Euronews</a> reported.</p><p>"It's unusual but not unexpected," said Newman, of the recent Arctic ozone hole, to <a href="https://mashable.com/article/ozone-hole-arctic/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>. "It's unusual in that we only have events like this about once per decade."</p><p>In 1997 and 2011, there were similar ozone depletions of the Arctic, according to Antje Innes, a senior scientist at the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, who spoke to <a href="https://mashable.com/article/ozone-hole-arctic/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>. However, the extent of ozone depletion was far greater during this one.</p><p>Scientists insist it is too early and too rare to say if the recent ozone depletion portends a new trend. "From my point of view, this is the first time you can speak about a real ozone hole in the Arctic," said Martin Dameris, an atmospheric scientist at the German Aerospace Center, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00904-w" target="_blank">to Nature</a>.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Saving the Ozone Layer 30 Years Ago Slowed Global Warming ... ›
- Ozone-Depleting Substances May Have Driven Arctic Warming ... ›
- Record Ozone Hole Forms Over Arctic - EcoWatch ›
- 'Ozone Friendly' Chemicals Are Polluting the Environment - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Crabeater seals. Jerzystrzelecki / CC BY 3.0
The western Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming places on Earth. But how will that impact the unique wildlife that call it home?
<p>To find out, researchers tracked the movements of krill-eating crabeater <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/seals" target="_self">seals</a> in the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to build a model of the future distribution of krill, an important food source for Antarctic animals like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/penguins" target="_self">penguins</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/whales" target="_self">whales</a>. The results, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0745-9" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a> Monday, showed that krill populations would shrink, shift offshore from northern coastal waters and move towards the south of the WAP, with major implications for the animals that feed on them.</p><p>"It will be challenging for a lot of species," first author Luis Huckstadt of the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) at UC Santa Cruz said in a <a href="https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/04/crabeater-seals.html" target="_blank">university press release</a>. "Things are changing so fast in Antarctica, the changes we're seeing in our model might be coming sooner than we expected."</p>
<div id="48a39" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d6ff1baa65fbf1195665913139a18cea"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1254802495676665856" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Researchers are tracking crabeater seals to build a habitat model that projects how climate change is impacting the… https://t.co/XfWGeVHa9q</div> — UC Santa Cruz Science (@UC Santa Cruz Science)<a href="https://twitter.com/UCSCscience/statuses/1254802495676665856">1588003202.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The reason the change in krill location is such a big deal is that it will force animals to travel further from shore for food.</p><p>"The shift in krill habitat away from coastal waters in the north has big implications for species like penguins and fur seals, which can't make long foraging trips because they have to come back to land to feed their offspring," Huckstadt said.</p><p>In addition, the decline in krill near the northern coast is projected to occur mostly during summer, when animals like humpback and minke whales migrate south in search of food. The southern shift of the krill could force them to travel even further in pursuit.</p><p>The researchers were able to use crabeater seal movements to make these predictions because the seals feed "almost exclusively" on krill, the study explained. They also travel near the surface of the water and only dive when they locate krill, which means by tagging the seals it is easy to get a picture of where krill are located, according to the press release. Using data from tracked seals, the researchers were able to build a model of krill distribution in the WAP and then see what happened to the model under changing conditions driven by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. The scientists used data from 42 tracked seals collected in 2001, 2002 and 2007, <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/great-climate-change-is-coming-for-these-cute-seal-boy-1843107067" target="_blank">Earther reported</a>.</p><p>It is unclear how the predicted changes would impact crabeater seals themselves. The seals live in Antarctica year-round and don't live in colonies, so it is easier for them to travel further for prey, the press release said. There is also a chance they may find new food sources, according to Earther, but scientists don't know if they could do so fast enough.</p><p>The WAP is rapidly changing. In February, it <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/antarctica-hottest-temperature-record-2645059660.html" target="_self">recorded</a> Antarctica's highest ever temperature. Its sea ice is shrinking and multiple ice shelves have collapsed, Earther pointed out.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Fishing Companies Halt Activities in Waters Proposed for Antarctic ... ›
- Scientists Connect Camera to Minke Whale in World-First Study ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Icebergs and sea ice in the waters off the Australian Antarctic Division on Jan.17, 2008. Fairfax Media via Getty Images
For the first time, microscopic plastic pollution has been found in Antarctic sea ice samples collected more than a decade ago, suggesting that microplastic concentrations in Southern Sea ice may be higher than previously believed.
<p>A total of 96 microplastic particles from 14 different types of polymer were discovered in an ice core sample collected from Casey Station located in East <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a> in 2009. As ice freezes in the region, scientists believe that small pieces of plastic may become trapped in ice, which acts as a reservoir for pollution until it is released again by ice melt.</p>
<p>"The remoteness of the Southern Ocean has not been enough to protect it from plastic pollution, which is now pervasive across the world's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a>," <a href="https://www.imas.utas.edu.au/news/news-items/microplastic-pollution-recorded-for-first-time-in-antarctic-sea-ice" target="_blank">said</a> lead study author Anna Kelly who published her findings in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111130" target="_blank"><em>Marine Pollution Bulletin</em></a>.</em></p><p>Plastic particles measuring less than 5 millimeters have become common in remote marine habitats, from nearly every corner of the world to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/plastics-deep-sea-fish-2536726086.html" target="_self">bellies of the world's most remote organisms</a>. Since researchers began tracing microplastics six years ago, they have found plastic pollution in Antarctic <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308738818_Microplastics_in_the_Southern_Ocean" target="_blank">surface waters</a> and sediments as well as in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" target="_self">Arctic</a> sea ice. Though these regions are remote, concentrations of microplastics have been found to rival those found in more urban settings.</p>
<p>"Forming from seawater, around 80 percent of Antarctic sea ice melts and reforms each year, providing seasonal opportunities for microplastics on the sea surface to become trapped in the ice," said Kelly, who worked with a team of scientists from the <a href="file:///C:/Users/admin/Desktop/Madison%20Dap,%20LLC/Ecowatch/imas.utas.edu.au" target="_blank">Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies</a> and the <a href="http://www.antarctica.gov.au/" target="_blank">Australian Antarctic Division</a>. Researchers wore a Tyvek suit both when collecting the ice core and when processing it, and a cotton lab coat was worn 11 years later to prevent potential cross-contamination.</p><p>An average of nearly 12 particles of microplastic were found in every examined liter of coastal land-fast sea ice, which is sea ice "fastened" to the coastline, according to the <a href="http://psc.apl.washington.edu/nonwp_projects/landfast_ice/about.php" target="_blank">Polar Science Center</a>. This number is slightly lower than what previous studies in polar regions have detected, but the overall size of each was larger, which indicate that the pollution came from local sources as it had "less time to break down into smaller fibers than if transported long distances on ocean currents."</p><p>"Local sources could include clothing and equipment used by tourists and researchers, while the fact that we also identified fibers of varnish and plastics commonly used in the fishing industry suggests a maritime source," Kelly said.</p>
<p>It could be that tourists or scientific researchers visiting the continent contribute microplastic pollution from their clothing fibers and other equipment, especially considering that the ice core sample was collected near a research facility that sees a steady stream of visitors. Microplastics trapped in ice rather than sinking to the deep ocean allows the pollutants to "persist for longer near the surface," making them more likely to be consumed by small marine organisms like krill who mistake it for food. Additionally, the findings suggest that sea ice could serve as a reservoir for microplastic debris in the Southern Ocean, posing potential biogeochemistry consequences.</p><p>"It is worth noting that plastic contamination of West Antarctic sea ice may be even greater than in our ice core from the East, as the Antarctic Peninsula hosts the bulk of the continent's tourism, research stations and marine traffic," said Kelly.</p><p>The researchers conclude that the findings present a "crucial need for stringent methods" when it comes to both to recovering and measuring microplastic particles from polar regions.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Plastic Contaminants Found in Eggs of Some of the World's Most ... ›
- Plastic Pollution in Antarctica 5 Times Worse Than Expected ... ›
- Researchers Find Record Levels of Microplastics in Arctic Sea Ice ›
- Ocean Microplastics Are Drastically Underestimated, New Research Suggests - EcoWatch ›
- Microplastics Found in Antarctica's Food Chain for First Time - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less