How will cryospheric changes at the poles impact polar terrestrial and marine ecosystems and the Earth’s climate?
Posted on August 31st, 2009 Submitted by svogel Categorized as Biodiversity, Earth System, Interdisciplinary Tagged as cryosphere, ecosystems, ocean conveyor belt, oceans, polar regions, sea-ice melt 1 Global climate change is heavily noticed at the poles. Sea ice diminishes, ice shelves collapse and ice sheets shrinking as ice melts and glaciers accelerate. Consequences are manifold: A large subglacial hydrological system exists beneath the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheet. Across this system the ice and water interacts with the underlying lithosphere and biochemical processes mobilizing nutrients which are subsequently transported to the ocean. Hidden beneath kilometer thick ice these interactions are not yet studied, neither the flux quantified nor the faith of nutrients in the ocean is known. Yet processes, like mobilization of iron from fine glacial flower, could play a role in fertility of the polar ocean. Changes in the extent of polar ice coverage exposes large areas of ocean
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