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on Sunday April 02 2017, @04:28PM
from the visit-the-scenic-algae-blooms-of-Antartica dept.
from the visit-the-scenic-algae-blooms-of-Antartica dept.
When spring arrives in the Arctic, both snow and sea ice melt, forming melt ponds on the surface of the sea ice. Every year, as global warming increases, there are more and larger melt ponds.
Melt ponds provide more light and heat for the ice and the underlying water, but now it turns out that they may also have a more direct and potentially important influence on life in the Arctic waters.
Mats of algae and bacteria can evolve in the melt ponds, which can provide food for marine creatures. This is the conclusion of researchers in the periodical, Polar Biology.
More information:
Heidi Louise Sørensen et al. Nutrient availability limits biological production in Arctic sea ice melt ponds, Polar Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s00300-017-2082-7
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Melting Sea Ice May Lead to More Life in the Sea
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TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 03 2017, @12:48PM (3 children)
> After all, at least half the predicted temperature change has already happened.
Whose prediction are you alluding to? Or are you referring to the goal of the Paris agreement?
They estimate 3 C of long term warming per doubling of CO2 concentration in atmosphere which I think is too high. Currently, we're experiencing more like 1.5 C. And much of the future warming predicted is for CO2 emissions that have yet to happen.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday April 03 2017, @03:02PM (2 children)
Currently we've seen around a 30% increase in CO2 since the industrial revolution began, with most of that having been added in the last handful of decades. Meanwhile it will take centuries for the planet to reach a new equilibrium state, so most of the warming we're currently seeing is due do the CO2 levels from many decades ago.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:29AM (1 child)
Currently we've seen around a 30% increase in CO2 since the industrial revolution began, with most of that having been added in the last handful of decades. Meanwhile it will take centuries for the planet to reach a new equilibrium state, so most of the warming we're currently seeing is due do the CO2 levels from many decades ago.
So what? The IPCC has already claimed that would about 1.1 C (using the 3 C temperature sensitivity for a doubling of CO2 and your 30% increase in CO2). What makes your opinion better than theirs or mine? Nor is it relevant that "the planet" takes a while to reach equilibrium since most of the change would happen long before we get bored and declare equilibrium (ignoring of course, that the climate changes often enough on that equilibrium never would be achieved).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:34AM