This is the 33rd issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the …
The surface melting of Antarctic ice shelves may double by 2050 and surpass intensities associated with ice shelf collapse by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate, a new study has warned. Ice shelves are the floating extensions of the continent's massive land-based ice sheets, researchers said. …
Antarctica’s contribution to global sea-level rise has recently been increasing . Whether its ice discharge will become unstable and decouple from anthropogenic forcing or increase linearly with the warming of the surrounding ocean is of fundamental importance . Under unabated greenhouse-gas emissions, ocean models indicate an abrupt intrusion of warm …
For tens of millions of years, cold conditions have excluded shell-crushing fish and crustaceans from the continental shelf surrounding Antarctica. Rapid warming is now allowing predatory crustaceans to return. Our study of the continental slope off the western Antarctic Peninsula showed that abundant, predatory king crabs comprise a reproductively viable …
Soil fungi have pivotal ecological roles as decomposers, pathogens and symbionts. Alterations to their diversity arising from climate change could have substantial effects on ecosystems, particularly those undergoing rapid warming that contain few species. Here, we report a study using pyrosequencing to assess fungal diversity in 29 soils sampled from …
The Arctic is warming roughly twice as fast as the global average. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at current rates, this warming will lead to the widespread thawing of permafrost and the release of hundreds of billions of tonnes of CO2 and billions of tonnes of CH4 into …
Reduced surface–deep ocean exchange and enhanced nutrient consumption by phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean have been linked to lower glacial atmospheric CO2. However, identification of the biological and physical conditions involved and the related processes remains incomplete. Here we specify Southern Ocean surface–subsurface contrasts using a new tool, the combined …
The Antarctic Ice Sheet stores water equivalent to 58 m in global sea-level rise. We show in simulations using the Parallel Ice Sheet Model that burning the currently attainable fossil fuel resources is sufficient to eliminate the ice sheet. With cumulative fossil fuel emissions of 10,000 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC), …
The vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica has started to soak up more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in recent years, helping limit climate change, after signs its uptake had stalled, a study said on Thursday. The Southern Ocean's natural absorption of carbon roughly doubled to 1.2 billion tonnes in 2011 …
WMO has published the first issue in the 2015 series of the Antarctic Ozone Bulletin, with information on the state of the ozone layer in Antarctica and surrounding areas. Measurements with ground-based instruments and with balloon sondes from some stations in the Global Atmosphere Watch network show first signs of …
Can climate change be good for penguins?! A new study suggests that at least one unusual species of the swimming birds found on the iconic Galapagos Islands might actually benefit from a changing world. It's no secret that the great majority of penguins are having a tough time in the …
MIAMI – Sea levels are rising around the world, and the latest satellite data suggest 3 feet (1 meter) or more is unavoidable in the next 100 to 200 years, NASA scientists said Wednesday. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than ever, and oceans are warming and …
Anthropogenic CO2 is rapidly causing oceans to become warmer and more acidic, challenging marine ectotherms to respond to simultaneous changes in their environment. While recent work has highlighted that marine fishes, particularly during early development, can be vulnerable to ocean acidification, we lack an understanding of how life-history strategies, ecosystems …
Volcanic eruptions contribute to climate variability, but quantifying these contributions has been limited by inconsistencies in the timing of atmospheric volcanic aerosol loading determined from ice cores and subsequent cooling from climate proxies such as tree rings. Here we resolve these inconsistencies and show that large eruptions in the tropics …
In a report titled 'State of the Climate in 2014,' the American Meteorological Society has described 2014 as the warmest year on record. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has also reported that the January-June 2015 period was the hottest on record, citing figures provided by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic …
Relief of iron (Fe) limitation in the Southern Ocean during ice ages, with potentially increased carbon storage in the ocean, has been invoked as one driver of glacial–interglacial atmospheric CO2 cycles. Ice and marine sediment records demonstrate that atmospheric dust supply to the oceans increased by up to an order …
PANAJI: The temperature in Antarctica may rise by as much as three degrees by the end of the century, an expert has said, adding this could be the tipping point as far as the fight against global warming is concerned. "There are models about the kind of increase in (temperature …
The geothermal heat flux is a critical thermal boundary condition that influences the melting, flow, and mass balance of ice sheets, but measurements of this parameter are difficult to make in ice-covered regions. We report the first direct measurement of geothermal heat flux into the base of the West Antarctic …
Octopods have successfully colonised the world’s oceans from the tropics to the poles. Yet, successful persistence in these habitats has required adaptations of their advanced physiological apparatus to compensate impaired oxygen supply. Their oxygen transporter haemocyanin plays a major role in cold tolerance and accordingly has undergone functional modifications to …
Antarctic biodiversity is much more extensive, ecologically diverse and biogeographically structured than previously thought. Understanding of how this diversity is distributed in marine and terrestrial systems, the mechanisms underlying its spatial variation, and the significance of the microbiota is growing rapidly. Broadly recognizable drivers of diversity variation include energy availability …
The continent and its waters are home to more than 8,000 species with up to 90% endemic, but human activities are taking a toll on its ecosystems The Antarctic and Southern oceans are teeming with life, yet protection measures are weak as the continent faces increased threats from fishing, tourism …
