Antarctic sea ice may not cap carbon emissions as much as previously thought

Mukund Gupta, EAPS Professor Michael “Mick” Follows, and EAPS research scientist Jonathan Lauderdale suggest that Antarctic sea ice might not trap carbon in the ocean, keeping it from escaping back into the atmosphere.

via MIT

The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is a region where many of the world’s carbon-rich deep waters can rise back up to the surface. Scientists have thought that the vast swaths of sea ice around Antarctica can act as a lid for upwelling carbon, preventing the gas from breaking through the ocean’s surface and returning to the atmosphere.

However, researchers at MIT have now identified a counteracting effect that suggests Antarctic sea ice may not be as powerful a control on the global carbon cycle as scientists had suspected.

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