Global warming has been held responsible for the loss of ice shelves in Antarctica. However, according to the recent studies conducted, it can be seen that the newly-exposed areas of sea are now absorbing up some of the carbon gas, which is causing further problem.
British Antarctic Survey (BAS) done by Scientists indicated that, with very passing minute, a marine plant called phytoplankton, is gobbling the ocean’s carbon. This marine plant floats near the surface.
The phytoplankton either dies or sinks after the natural process of sucking the carbon called photosynthesis.
The process, known as a carbon sink, has been seen in areas of open water that is being exposed by the recent, rapid melting of several ice shelves. According to Global Change Biology, in the last 50 years, approximately 24,000 square kilometers of new open water have been formed this way.
Their estimate shows that the phytoplankton absorbs 3.5 million tones of carbon, equivalent to 12.8 million tones of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas.
Ice shelves are basically layers of thick ice that float on the sea and are attached to the land. They are formed when ice is released from glaciers on the land. Antarctica has lost seven ice shelves in the past.
The process is then followed by contraction and the breakaway of increasingly bigger chunks before the leftovers of the shelf snaps away from the coast. Its then broken into fragments or into icebergs that ultimately melt as they flow northwards.
The Antarctic ice shelves do not increase the sea levels when they melt. They float on the sea just like the Arctic ice cap, not contributing to the increase in level.
However, ice that flows from land into the sea does increase the ocean’s volume.
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