EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

A Holiday Caution For Our Ice Planet

Ice Cap & Glaciers
Southeast Greenland

Explanation:  For many cultures, we are into the holiday season, celebrating in various ways and with diverse beliefs, faiths, and traditions.  Viva diversidad.  

It is a lesson that we are all truly of one planet ... and there are many lessons, wonderful and vital, if we stop to look at the world around us.  

This week is a scene not of Santa's North Pole abode, but of a rapidly changing scene in the Arctic nonetheless.  This week we find ourselves flying over the coast of southeast Greenland.  Below, the massive ice cap of this island continent spills down valleys as flowing glaciers.  And here is a holiday lesson for our ice planet.

As has been reported in recent years, Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers are melting at rates unexpected by most scientists and climatologists.  A recent study by NASA and ESA revealed that ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland combined is now three times faster than it was in the 1990s ... and Greenland itself contributes two-thirds of this loss, and its rate of ice loss alone is five times greater than it was in the 1990s. 

So much water is caught up in Greenland's ice that even partial melting will have a significant effect on rising sea levels at least along the northeast North American coast if not elsewhere.   

Some of Greenland's ice loss is due to melting of the surface ice ... and some due to melting under the ice.  

Some studies (such as Rignot et al., 2010) note that melting of glaciers in the ocean ("submarine melting") also are contributing to Greenland's overall ice loss.   

   
The melting of Greenland's ice sheet will likely have several major global consequences, including contribution to sea level rise and flooding of low-lying coastal cities, habitations, and habitats ... and potential disruption of global ocean circulation from massive input of freshwater, which in turn would trigger further imbalances of global climate and weather systems.  

So in this time of holiday cheer and celebration, perhaps we can find a moment to pause and consider the lessons of looking globally, appreciating not just what we have now but also learning where we all may be heading in the not-too-distant future.

Happy Holidays from Ecology Picture of the Week !
  

Information:
     Driesschaert, E., T. Fichefet, H. Goosse, and 6 others.  2007.  Modeling the influence of Greenland ice sheet melting on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the next millennia.  Geophysical Research Letters 34:doi:10.1029/2007GL029516.
     Hu, A., G. A. Meehl, W. Han, and J. Yin.  2009.  Transient response of the MOC and climate to potential melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the 21st century.  Geophysical Research Letters 36:doi:10.1029/2009GL037998.
     Parizek, B.R. and R.B. Alley.  2004.  Implications of increased Greenland surface melt under gloabl-warming scenarios:  ice-sheet simulations.  Quaternary Science Reviews 23(9-10):1013-1027.
     Rignot, E., M. Koppes, and I. Velicogna.  2010.  Rapid submarine melting of the calving faces of West Greenland glaciers.  Nature Geodscience 3:187-191.
     Stammer, D.  2008.  Response of the global ocean to Greenland and Antarctic ice melting.  Journal of Geophysical Research 113:doi:10.1029/2006JC004079.