{"id":36808,"date":"2025-07-13T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=36808"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:00:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T05:00:53","slug":"antarctic-sea-ice-collapse-linked-to-mysterious-increase-in-ocean-salinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/07\/13\/antarctic-sea-ice-collapse-linked-to-mysterious-increase-in-ocean-salinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic sea ice: Collapse linked to mysterious increase in ocean salinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antarctic sea ice has been steadily shrinking since 2015, reaching 100% in 2023. record decline<\/strong> 1.55 million square kilometers below the expected average. This decrease is the largest <\/strong>environmental shift recorded on Earth in recent decades and will have cascading effects on the world's climate. Scientists are now linking this decline to unexpected and as yet unexplained increase in the salinity of the Southern Ocean waters<\/strong>, which surround the continent. The discovery is contradictory<\/strong>, as melting ice is usually associated with a decrease in ocean salinity. This points to deep structural shift<\/strong> in the Southern Ocean.<\/p>\n

Sea ice melts in summer and freezes in winter. In Antarctica, it serves as protective ditch<\/strong>, protecting land ice from warming ocean waters. Also reflects solar energy<\/strong> back to space and captures carbon dioxide<\/strong> below the ocean surface. While Arctic ice has declined by more than 12 % per decade since 1979, Antarctic ice has been growing until 2014. However, this trend reversed in 2016, representing a sharp decline fundamental shift<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although climate change is the underlying cause of this shift, the interaction between the ocean and the air is complex, and the remoteness of the Southern Ocean makes it difficult to predict the impact of warming. So the scientists analyzed satellite data from 2011 to 2023, specifically from the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite. They found that the decline in sea ice and opening huge holes<\/strong> in its coverage, such as the Maud Rise polynya in the Weddell Sea, coincided with a sharp increase in salinity<\/strong>These findings, which were initially questioned, were also confirmed by data from floating buoys.<\/p>\n

Conventional thinking assumes that melting ice should increase the amount of freshwater on the ocean's surface. Instead, an unknown process is making the water saltier. The exact causes remain unclear.<\/strong>"One possibility is that salt from deeper ocean layers was brought to the surface, perhaps by changes in ocean circulation or atmospheric action. Scientists are actively investigating this phenomenon," said lead author Alessandro Silvano.<\/p>\n

Increased salt content will likely cause greater warming of surface waters and faster ice melting. Salt water is denser than fresh water.<\/strong>, which means that a layer of fresh water on the surface acts as a "lid", preventing warmer water from deeper layers from reaching the surface. When this "lid" is disturbed, more warm water can rise, reducing the extent of sea ice. Less sea ice in turn means less transport of fresh water from the coast to the ocean.<\/p>\n

Other experts consider these findings to be missing piece of the puzzle<\/strong>which can explain discrepancy between climate models and real data<\/strong>According to researcher Caroline Holmes, the Southern Ocean beneath the surface is chronically under-observed<\/strong>, and therefore larger observations are needed to improve the models. The scientists will further investigate what triggered the 2015 salinity increase and whether it could be tipping point<\/strong>If current trends continue, more significant global impacts could be seen within a few decades. Reduced sea ice could allow carbon release<\/strong> stored in the Southern Ocean, which would increase atmospheric CO2, similar to past warm periods. This process requires urgent further investigation. Spring<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antarctic sea ice has been steadily shrinking since 2015, reaching a record loss of 1.55 million square kilometers below the expected average in 2023. This decline is the largest environmental shift<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klimaticka-zmena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}