A team of glaciologists set out to quantify how much ice melt occurred on Antarctica’s ice shelves from 1980 to 2021. The results might seem to be good news for the region, but the researchers say there’s no cause for celebration just yet.
The study was led by a partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The researchers used satellite data to analyze the ice melt over the past four decades, and found that although there was no significant change in surface melting, the ice is still being lost through other means.
The results show Antarctic ice shelves overall have seen only minor changes in surface melt rates over the past 40 years, and the modeling results even show a small but significant decrease in melt rates during the study period.
However, some ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out of the continent toward South America, did experience exceptionally high surface melt in recent years, especially during the austral summer of 2019-2020.
However, the researchers do expect to see an increase in surface melt in the coming decades. Surface melt makes ice shelves less stable by thinning them and changing how they respond to stress, which in turn means a greater contribution to global sea level rise.
This is due to a process called ‘basal melting’, where the ice is eroded from below by warm ocean waters.
As global water temperatures continue to rise, this process is likely to accelerate, which could have severe consequences for coastal communities around the world.
So while the surface melting on Antarctic ice shelves may not have changed significantly since 1980, this is no cause for celebration.
There remains a pressing need to address the issue of climate change and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, in order to protect our planet and our communities from the devastating effects of sea level rise.
Edited by Zeng Han-Jun
Written by Juliana Rodriguez
Terra Link Research 