Antarctica is Earth’s southernmost continent.Antarctica is the coldest of Earth's continents and is a frozen desert with little precipitation. There are countless number of animals(including penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals), fungi(such as Cryomyces antarcticus, and Cryomyces minteri), plants and other organisms. Nonetheless, the biodiversity is consistently changing over past century and strongly affected by the climate change in recent years.
There are unique climate changes among the Antarctic region. These include the uptake of carbon dioxide by the Southern Ocean; the overturning circulation of the deep ocean; the balance between water storage and discharge in the main continental ice-sheet; changes in surface energy, mass and momentum exchange by ice masses; and energy transfer between all levels of the atmosphere to space. Their impacts include future greenhouse gas levels, sea-level rise, the variability and rate of change of climate, and changes in atmospheric composition.
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Many glaciers and ice shelves have retreated in recent years. 87% of glaciers along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula have retreated in the last 50 years with most of these showing accelerated retreat in the last 12 years.Recently it has been revealed that the collapsing in WAIS is unstoppable.
Meanwhile, the polar region-Antarctica-is particularly sensitive to small rises in the annual average temperature, they are sometimes referred to as "the canary in the coalmine" in that they show changes long before they can be seen elsewhere in the world. However, first it should be assumed that Global warming is real, and the average temperature in Antarctica region has risen for
The global mean surface temperature is projected to increase by around 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial values by the end of the 21th century. Therefore, if we continue to not check the anthropogenic emissions, the increase may be around 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, which is incredibly damaging to various ecosystems internationally. It is difficult to determine the possible aftereffects of the ice sheets melting because the equilibrium-response timescales of them is longer than both the atmosphere and ocean. The ice-sheet/ice-shelf model shows that if the atmospheric warming increases 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above the present temperatures, the Antarctic ice shelves will collapse and trigger a centennial scale response –a never-ending
In the story “Caviar”, both husband Nathaniel and wife Marie suffer a loss of innocence. It is Nathaniel, however, that goes through the greatest degree of loss. He may have caused his wife's loss of innocence by having an affair with their surrogate, Wendy, but he lost so much himself. Marie though having lost a husband, got the child she had so desperately wanted. Nathaniel was left with nothing as he lost his wife, his mistress, and his new born son.
The evidence behind this discovery is quite breathtaking. Since the 19th century, the surface temperatures on planet earth have increased a full two degrees. This change has been proven to be largely driven by increase in carbon monoxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Along with the rising global temperatures, another vital sign of global warming would be the shrinking of the ice caps and sheets. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 36 to 60 cubic miles of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 36 cubic miles of ice between 2002 and 2005.
The picture shows Antarctic, the ice is usually covering all of the water but climate change caused some of the ice to melt. This is impacting living organisms because it is changing their natural habitat to something very different. If the ice melts it will flood homes and animals habitats around it.
Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and most inhospitable continent on Earth. Yet it is yields some 90 percent of the Earth most precious natural resource: water. But behind this pristine exterior, Antarctica is fighting a losing battle. New data suggests that the continent as a whole is warming at an alarming rate. According to recent studies gathered from Nature Magazine, the western half of the continent is warming five times faster than any other place
The change the Artic will have an impact on the earth. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at twice the rate of the rest of the world on average, and melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets are contributing to rising sea levels. Rising ocean temperatures are affecting ocean ecosystems. In turn having an affect on the communities and economies that depend on them. The changing Arctic could lead to global changes in ocean-based food security that will place additional burdens on economies, societies, and institutions around the world.
For many years now, scientists have believed that our climate is changing. This climate change has caused water currents up north, near Antarctica to shift leading to warm waters taking the place of the usual cold arctic waters. Warm water melts the glaciers and causes the top of the glaciers to float off into the sea, allowing the warm water to melt even more glaciers. The extra glacier melting into our sea has caused the sea levels to raise and the
It has been observed through various researches that in the last century, average temperatures across the globe increased by over 1.3°F with an increase of more than two times in the Arctic. (Bates, Kundzewicz, Wu, & Palutikof, June 2008). The results of climate change can also be seen in changing precipitation patterns, increases in ocean temperatures, changes in the sea level, and acidity and melting of glaciers and sea ice (USEPA, 2014).
Antarctica is essential for science because of its enormous effect on the Earth's climate and ocean systems. The Antarctic is critical our understanding of global climate change. Preserved in its four kilometre-thick ice sheet is a unique record of the
Millions of miles of ice and an unfriendly environment make Antarctica an exciting place to study. It is very unique, and doesn’t have the same properties as the other continents do. It is much colder than the rest of the world. For example, the average temperature in Antarctica during the summer months is about 32 degrees fahrenheit! The coldest temperature ever recorded anywhere was in Antarctica, at the Russian Vostok station. It was -129.3 degrees fahrenheit!! In addition, the continent contains 90% of the world’s ice, and it is bigger than the United States. “It is the coldest, windiest, and driest continent in the world”. (Redd) In fact, the average precipitation there is only 2 inches every year. Believe it or not, Antarctica is classified as a desert, because it is so dry, and has such a minimal amount of moisture. “More rain falls in the Sahara Desert”. (Redd) Even though there is very little snow, Antarctica still has massive blizzards. The heavy winds pick up snow from the ground and blow it around. Winds in Antarctica have been known to reach 200 miles
Researchers fear that global warming, and consequently climate change, will impact primarily on the Antarctic species and that the decline of their populations will continue to be unsustainable. Fortunately, some people are implementing conservation efforts to avoid it, but it seems that they are not enough.
My world problem is climate changes effect on Antarctica. The cause of this world wide issue is an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide enters our atmosphere through burning fossil fuels. Carbon Dioxide levels have risen just nineteen percent since 1987-337 parts per million then to just over 400 parts per million now (Atkin). Ozone depletion high above Antarctica is due to chlorofluorocarbons and other greenhouse gases (Atkin). High carbon dioxide levels in earth’s atmosphere
Antarctica, the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole, is a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered land mass. Since first being sighted during a Russian voyage in 1820, Antarctica has remained completely devoid of civilian settlements for over a century due to its unwelcoming and virtually inhospitable climate. At the time of its discovery 98% of the continent was blanketed by dense continental ice sheets. Little has changed as time has passed, and with temperatures recorded as low as negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit, winds up to 200 miles an hour, and an average precipitation of only 6.5 inches annually, Antarctica remains the harshest continent on Earth
Antarctica is the fifth largest Continent on the world map which covers close to 14.2 million square kilometres of land space that includes the ice sheets which unfolds onto the sea (Martin, 2013). Antarctica once used to be part of Gondwana supercontinent until it fragmented itself 70 million years ago and moved to the South Pole making it isolated from other land areas (Martin, 2013). Antarctica was once ice free, had temperatures well above freezing point and was also filled with greeneries forty million years ago during the early Oligocene period (Florindo & Siegert, 2008). In the latter half of the Oligocene towards the Miocene period, temperature in Antarctica started to descend. Factors such as the height of Antarctica, which is 2800 metres above sea level, the Atmosphere in the Southern Hemisphere being much thinner with minimal cloud cover that leads to high albedo and the ocean currant movement around Antarctica has made Antarctica as cold as minus sixty Degrees Celsius for humans to inhibit living here (Harwood et al., 2006). Scientists have been able to track back on the climate conditions in Antarctica over the past thirteen million years with the aid of collecting rocks, soil, animal and plant fossils buried deep down into the ground beyond the thick ice formation that covers the Antarctic region currently. Scientists concluded that in order to get the geological evidence, land had to be excavated vertically down towards the earth core (Naish, Powell, & Levy,
One of the effects of global warming is the polar ice caps’ melting. Scientists have been researching and examining the polar ice caps for a long time and they have come to the conclusion that the thin ice sheets are slowly wasting away. They have also found out that Greenland’s glaciers are getting smaller and smaller. Places around the globe that use to be covered in ice and snow are now showing more green terrain as the years go on and as the winter months grow warmer. The polar ice caps are melting more and more due to higher global temperatures. This is really bad because the ice caps “reflect and help regulate the Earth’s temperatures.”