Quick Facts about Climate Change in Antarctica

Climate Change in Antarctica QUICK FACTS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN ANTARCTICA
Navagation: Home Quick Facts Temp. Changes Reasons for Climate Change Effects on Ice Sheets and the World Effects on Antarctica's Animals	Quick Facts about Temperature Changes: Average surface temperature of the Earth has increased by less than 1°C throughout the last 150 years. Earth has warmed at a high rate of 0.2° C every 10 years for that past 30 years, which is a very high rate. Earth is now within 1°C of its highest temperature in the past million years. Researchers expect the temperature to rise another 1.5 to 4°C within a short amount of time. Surface temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have already risen by 2° C to 3° C within the last 50 years. Temperature changes on the surface are possibly due to the effects of the Southern Annular Mode and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. The changing of surface and ocean temperatures might also be, in part, due to another growing problem: the hole in the ozone above Antarctica. Quick Facts about Reasons for Climate Change: Excess pollution into the air destroys the ozone above Antarctica and increases the Greenhouse Effect. This hole cooled the stratosphere by around 10°C because of the escaping of gases into space. The stratosphere does not affect the ground temperature; rather it changes the westerly wind direction and strengthens the polar vortex. Scientists believe that it is the hole in the ozone layer that is causing climate change on Antarctica, not global warming; although they admit that much of the warming of the region started prior to the hole in the ozone layer. The hole in the ozone layer is something that scientists believe society can fix by 2020 with a large reduction of pollutants into the air, but global warming is a problem that all researchers agree is not yet under control. Although research has shown that humans are affecting the climate change, research suggests that only about half of the observed melting is due to human activity. Results of the climate change in Antarctica come from a series of factors having to do with the natural cycle of the Earth along with the human influences. Pollutants are also one of the primary causes of global warming. Scientists have proven that the more CO2 and other greenhouse gases we put into the air, the more effect on warming of the Earth. Absorption of radiation from the sun keeps the Earth warm enough to support life, but the more greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere, the more radiation from the sun is absorbed because of the greenhouse effect of trapping the radiation. Quick Facts about the Effects of Climate Change on Ice Sheets and the World: The biggest effect of global warming is the shrinking of Antarctica’s ice sheets. If all of the ice on Antarctica melted, scientists have calculated that the Earth’s oceans would rise 73 meters. The Larson-B ice shelf, which was 10,000 years old and 650 feet thick, looks nothing like it did in the past, because just five years ago, it collapsed into the ocean; a late summer heat wave melted the top of the ice, which created many melt ponds, lakes, and waterfalls The coastline of the Larson-B had not changed in over 9,000 years, and completely changed in merely a few weeks because global warming and climate change of the region had systematically dismantled the huge ice sheet that researchers believed would take centuries. The glaciers on the land behind the Larson-B shelf have since thinned by tens of meters per year as it moves forward to the ocean quickly, and continue to melt more with each warm summer. Throughout the last 61 years, 87 percent of the glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula alone have begun to break up or melt. The Antarctic ice sheet is smaller than it was throughout the Last Glacial Maximum 13,000-24,000 years ago, which means that this ice sheet is susceptible to climate change such as a global temperature rise of only 2°C more than the current global temperature. A British Antarctic Survey crew recently reported that within the last 50 years, 87 percent of the 244 glaciers they were studying retreated due to climate change. The research shows that most glaciers and floating ice shelves along the peninsula’s east side have been retreating at about 50 meters per year, although some have retreated as much as one kilometer each year within the last five years due in part to human-influenced climate change. The Muller Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula had been growing for over 400 years during a cooling period, but it has recently started receding like many other ice shelves, due, in part, to an increase of 5°C during the winters throughout the last 50 years. Quick Facts about the Effects of Climate Change on Animals in Antarctica: Massive collapse and melting of ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula is in part due to an increase of 5°C during the winters throughout the last 50 years, which also disrupted the growth of krill that penguins relied on to survive, creating a decline in the penguin populations of Antarctica. The colonies of chinstrap penguins have moved over the last 50 years into the territory of Adelies penguins because of the melting ice and a scarce supply of food when the temperatures began to rise Within the last 25 years, the Adelie penguin colonies have declined sharply in numbers because of the movement of other species of penguins onto their territory and the lack of krill to eat Changing climate of the Humble Island area has caused for a loss of half of the 16,000 Adelies. To understand the effects of climate change on the birds of Antarctica, scientists conducted a study to find and carbon-date Adelie penguin feces in order to find out about fluctuations in Antarctica’s ice ages. Since guano, feathers, skin, eggshells, and bones are in abundance in Antarctica, it is easy to carbon-date these subjects and find what the temperature at the location was. Carbon dating these specimens is useful in figuring out if the temperature at that particular site was warm enough to allow the birds to live there due to the closeness of open water during a particular era. Though carbon-dating, they mapped out the history of the Adelie penguins back to around 40,000 years ago, and found that there were a lot of periods of vast open water between 45,000 and 27,000 years ago, 8000 to 5000 years ago, 4000 to 2000 years ago, and from 1100 years ago until today. The Emperor penguin, has been declining by 50 percent since 50 years ago due to the climate change. Evidence shows that an abnormally long warm period in the Southern Ocean during the 1970s partially caused the decline in numbers at Terre Adelie, Antarctica, because the warming period killed off krill and other crustaceans that the Emperor penguins eat. The Emperors during the late 1970s experienced an abnormally long warm period, which researcher Weimerskirch believes had to do with global warming. Luckily, winter air and sea surface temperatures dropped again in the 1980s and the Emperor penguin population stabilized. (However, now they are in trouble again.

Climate Change in Antarctica

QUICK FACTS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN ANTARCTICA

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Quick Facts about Temperature Changes:

Average surface temperature of the Earth has increased by less than 1°C throughout the last 150 years.
Earth has warmed at a high rate of 0.2° C every 10 years for that past 30 years, which is a very high rate.
Earth is now within 1°C of its highest temperature in the past million years.
Researchers expect the temperature to rise another 1.5 to 4°C within a short amount of time.
Surface temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have already risen by 2° C to 3° C within the last 50 years.
Temperature changes on the surface are possibly due to the effects of the Southern Annular Mode and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.
The changing of surface and ocean temperatures might also be, in part, due to another growing problem: the hole in the ozone above Antarctica.

Quick Facts about Reasons for Climate Change:

Excess pollution into the air destroys the ozone above Antarctica and increases the Greenhouse Effect.
This hole cooled the stratosphere by around 10°C because of the escaping of gases into space.
The stratosphere does not affect the ground temperature; rather it changes the westerly wind direction and strengthens the polar vortex.
Scientists believe that it is the hole in the ozone layer that is causing climate change on Antarctica, not global warming; although they admit that much of the warming of the region started prior to the hole in the ozone layer.
The hole in the ozone layer is something that scientists believe society can fix by 2020 with a large reduction of pollutants into the air, but global warming is a problem that all researchers agree is not yet under control.
Although research has shown that humans are affecting the climate change, research suggests that only about half of the observed melting is due to human activity.
Results of the climate change in Antarctica come from a series of factors having to do with the natural cycle of the Earth along with the human influences.
Pollutants are also one of the primary causes of global warming.
Scientists have proven that the more CO2 and other greenhouse gases we put into the air, the more effect on warming of the Earth.
Absorption of radiation from the sun keeps the Earth warm enough to support life, but the more greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere, the more radiation from the sun is absorbed because of the greenhouse effect of trapping the radiation.

Quick Facts about the Effects of Climate Change on Ice Sheets and the World:

The biggest effect of global warming is the shrinking of Antarctica’s ice sheets.
If all of the ice on Antarctica melted, scientists have calculated that the Earth’s oceans would rise 73 meters.
The Larson-B ice shelf, which was 10,000 years old and 650 feet thick, looks nothing like it did in the past, because just five years ago, it collapsed into the ocean; a late summer heat wave melted the top of the ice, which created many melt ponds, lakes, and waterfalls
The coastline of the Larson-B had not changed in over 9,000 years, and completely changed in merely a few weeks because global warming and climate change of the region had systematically dismantled the huge ice sheet that researchers believed would take centuries.
The glaciers on the land behind the Larson-B shelf have since thinned by tens of meters per year as it moves forward to the ocean quickly, and continue to melt more with each warm summer.
Throughout the last 61 years, 87 percent of the glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula alone have begun to break up or melt.
The Antarctic ice sheet is smaller than it was throughout the Last Glacial Maximum 13,000-24,000 years ago, which means that this ice sheet is susceptible to climate change such as a global temperature rise of only 2°C more than the current global temperature.
A British Antarctic Survey crew recently reported that within the last 50 years, 87 percent of the 244 glaciers they were studying retreated due to climate change. The research shows that most glaciers and floating ice shelves along the peninsula’s east side have been retreating at about 50 meters per year, although some have retreated as much as one kilometer each year within the last five years due in part to human-influenced climate change.
The Muller Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula had been growing for over 400 years during a cooling period, but it has recently started receding like many other ice shelves, due, in part, to an increase of 5°C during the winters throughout the last 50 years.

Quick Facts about the Effects of Climate Change on Animals in Antarctica:

Massive collapse and melting of ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula is in part due to an increase of 5°C during the winters throughout the last 50 years, which also disrupted the growth of krill that penguins relied on to survive, creating a decline in the penguin populations of Antarctica.
The colonies of chinstrap penguins have moved over the last 50 years into the territory of Adelies penguins because of the melting ice and a scarce supply of food when the temperatures began to rise
Within the last 25 years, the Adelie penguin colonies have declined sharply in numbers because of the movement of other species of penguins onto their territory and the lack of krill to eat
Changing climate of the Humble Island area has caused for a loss of half of the 16,000 Adelies.
To understand the effects of climate change on the birds of Antarctica, scientists conducted a study to find and carbon-date Adelie penguin feces in order to find out about fluctuations in Antarctica’s ice ages.
Since guano, feathers, skin, eggshells, and bones are in abundance in Antarctica, it is easy to carbon-date these subjects and find what the temperature at the location was. Carbon dating these specimens is useful in figuring out if the temperature at that particular site was warm enough to allow the birds to live there due to the closeness of open water during a particular era.
Though carbon-dating, they mapped out the history of the Adelie penguins back to around 40,000 years ago, and found that there were a lot of periods of vast open water between 45,000 and 27,000 years ago, 8000 to 5000 years ago, 4000 to 2000 years ago, and from 1100 years ago until today.
The Emperor penguin, has been declining by 50 percent since 50 years ago due to the climate change. Evidence shows that an abnormally long warm period in the Southern Ocean during the 1970s partially caused the decline in numbers at Terre Adelie, Antarctica, because the warming period killed off krill and other crustaceans that the Emperor penguins eat.
The Emperors during the late 1970s experienced an abnormally long warm period, which researcher Weimerskirch believes had to do with global warming. Luckily, winter air and sea surface temperatures dropped again in the 1980s and the Emperor penguin population stabilized. (However, now they are in trouble again.