Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century
Abstract With the accelerating mass loss of Antarctic ice sheets, the freshening of the Southern Ocean coastal oceans (SOc, seas around Antarctica) is gradually intensifying, which will reduce the formation of bottom water and weaken the meridional overturning circulation, thus having a significant...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04231-6 |
| _version_ | 1798026480745185280 |
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| author | Xianliang L. Pan Bofeng F. Li Yutaka W. Watanabe |
| author_facet | Xianliang L. Pan Bofeng F. Li Yutaka W. Watanabe |
| author_sort | Xianliang L. Pan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract With the accelerating mass loss of Antarctic ice sheets, the freshening of the Southern Ocean coastal oceans (SOc, seas around Antarctica) is gradually intensifying, which will reduce the formation of bottom water and weaken the meridional overturning circulation, thus having a significant negative impact on the ocean’s role in regulating global climate. Due to the extreme environment of the Southern Ocean and the limitations of observational techniques, our understanding of the glacier-derived freshening of SOc is still vague. We developed a method that first provided us with an expansive understanding of glacier-derived freshening progress over the SOc. Applying this method to the observational data in the SOc from 1926 to 2016, revealed that the rate of glacier-derived freshwater input reached a maximum of 268 ± 134 Gt year−1 during the early twenty-first century. Our results indicate that during the same period, glacier melting accounted for 63%, 28%, and 92% of the total freshening occurred in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific sectors of the SOc, respectively. This suggests that the ice shelf basal melt in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula plays a dominant role in the freshening of the surrounding seas. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:36:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2081bf92a00e4f51a69c2a2b49e8803c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T18:36:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-2081bf92a00e4f51a69c2a2b49e8803c2022-12-22T04:09:14ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-01-0112111010.1038/s41598-021-04231-6Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first centuryXianliang L. Pan0Bofeng F. Li1Yutaka W. Watanabe2Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido UniversityFaculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido UniversityFaculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido UniversityAbstract With the accelerating mass loss of Antarctic ice sheets, the freshening of the Southern Ocean coastal oceans (SOc, seas around Antarctica) is gradually intensifying, which will reduce the formation of bottom water and weaken the meridional overturning circulation, thus having a significant negative impact on the ocean’s role in regulating global climate. Due to the extreme environment of the Southern Ocean and the limitations of observational techniques, our understanding of the glacier-derived freshening of SOc is still vague. We developed a method that first provided us with an expansive understanding of glacier-derived freshening progress over the SOc. Applying this method to the observational data in the SOc from 1926 to 2016, revealed that the rate of glacier-derived freshwater input reached a maximum of 268 ± 134 Gt year−1 during the early twenty-first century. Our results indicate that during the same period, glacier melting accounted for 63%, 28%, and 92% of the total freshening occurred in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific sectors of the SOc, respectively. This suggests that the ice shelf basal melt in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula plays a dominant role in the freshening of the surrounding seas.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04231-6 |
| spellingShingle | Xianliang L. Pan Bofeng F. Li Yutaka W. Watanabe Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century Scientific Reports |
| title | Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century |
| title_full | Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century |
| title_fullStr | Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century |
| title_short | Intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the Antarctica during early twenty-first century |
| title_sort | intense ocean freshening from melting glacier around the antarctica during early twenty first century |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04231-6 |
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