The antarctic glacier meltdown caused a slowdown of ocean currents. Over 3,000 billion tons of ice were lost from Antarctic ice sheets over 25 years.
The situation is alarming. Antarctic Glaciers meltdown has a direct impact on the slowdown of deep ocean currents.
The deep ocean currents are collapsing, it is similar to what we saw in the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow” where North Atlantic Ocean currents were completely shut down causing a rapid change in global climate and leading to the Ice Age world.
The new research explores the real-world slowdown of the Southern ocean currents of Antarctica.
The ocean currents slowing has a direct impact on the marine ecosystem and global climate change.
What is Overturning Circulation and Slowdown of Ocean Currents?
Overturning circulation is a process in which warm waters flow toward poles, as it cools down heat evaporates. Now the oceanic water becomes saltier and denser, and it sinks deep into ocean currents.
These deep-water ocean currents are rich in nutrients, carbon, and oxygen. The deep-water ocean currents act like a conveyer belt, which transports nutrients from the depth of the sea around the other oceans.
It helps in providing food stock to the marine ecosystem and also maintains the global climate.
Antarctic Glaciers Meltdown has an impact on Deep Ocean Currents
Antarctic Glaciers Meltdown releases a lot of fresh water in oceans. These fresh waters dilute the density of deep ocean salt water.
This will results in the overturning circulation process slowing down, which in turn prevents the movement of nutrients oxygen, and heat to other regions.
If the nutrients stop reaching other areas of the oceans, marine organisms will deprive of this nutrition.
Research scientist Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) says that -:
“This process could slow by more than 40% and collapse by the midpoint of the century, assuming the current global rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues.
“knock on” effects that will see the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon reduced, and lead to changes in tropical rainfall bands and the health of marine ecosystem productivity.
And you can shift the ITCZ – the intertropical convergence zone, the big rainfall bands in the tropics – almost synchronously with those changes.
“It’s almost an instantaneous response in the atmosphere. Once you change the overturning circulation, you reset the global energy balance.”
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Global CO2 Emission Has Direct Impact on Antarctic Glaciers Meltdown
The CO2 emission has a direct impact on global warming which lead to the Antarctic Glaciers Meltdown.
The antarctic glaciers’ meltdown has slowdown of ocean currents.
Marine productivity is also affected badly because marine phytoplankton is unable to get the nutrients, and this results in their extinction.
As sea level phytoplanktons diminish, it cuts the feeding opportunities for larger fish and marine mammals.
Action Call to Cut The CO2 Emission
University of New South Wales model studies the slowdown of ocean currents due to Antarctic glaciers meltdown.
Oceanographer Professor Trevor McDougall of the UNSW said that –
“This study is the first to shed light on the causes of the warming at the bottom of the Southern Ocean, and importantly, the mechanisms that are causing this warming”
The model is completely based on the ‘high’ IPCC climate change scenario. It puts the earth model on a three-degree warming pathway, due to the change in global carbon emissions.
Earlier in March IPCC synthesis report forecasted that high levels of carbon emission would lead to extreme climate change and fish stock depletion.
Antarctic glaciers have a deep impact on our global climate and with the faster rate at which they are melting, we will have to see extreme consequences in our weather and ecosystem in the near future.
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