Publication Date:
2014-12-06
Description:
Decadal trends in the properties of seawater adjacent to Antarctica are poorly known, and the mechanisms responsible for such changes are uncertain. Antarctic ice sheet mass loss is largely driven by ice shelf basal melt, which is influenced by ocean-ice interactions and has been correlated with Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottom Water (ASBW) temperature. We document the spatial distribution of long-term large-scale trends in temperature, salinity, and core depth over the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. Warming at the seabed in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas is linked to increased heat content and to a shoaling of the mid-depth temperature maximum over the continental slope, allowing warmer, saltier water greater access to the shelf in recent years. Regions of ASBW warming are those exhibiting increased ice shelf melt.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schmidtko, Sunke -- Heywood, Karen J -- Thompson, Andrew F -- Aoki, Shigeru -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Dec 5;346(6214):1227-31. doi: 10.1126/science.1256117.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Dusternbrooker Weg 24, 24105 Kiel, Germany. sschmidtko@geomar.de. ; Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. ; Environmental Science and Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. ; Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477461" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Antarctic Regions
;
*Freezing
;
*Global Warming
;
*Ice Cover
;
*Seawater
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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