West Antarctica is missing a lot of ice

West coast of Antarctica It is missing an area of ​​winter sea ice the size of France, raising concerns about threatened penguins, other marine life and global sea levels.

One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “disappointing” and the ice formation failure could have been made worse. A heat wave hit the peninsula of the continent last week Daytime temperatures peaked at 15.4 degrees Celsius, which was more than 20 degrees Celsius above average.

It is winter in Antarctica, when sea ice expands rapidly around the continent and peaks in September.

But satellite observations showed that the Bellingshausen Sea – located on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula and usually covered in ice by June – was completely ice-free.

Scientists said the region has lost about 650,000 square kilometers (250,000 square miles) of sea ice, compared to the average between 1991 and 2020. This is an area equivalent to the size of France and about ten times the size of Tasmania.

“I’m concerned. It’s frustrating,” said Dr. Will Hobbs, an Antarctic sea ice expert at the University of Tasmania with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership.

“It’s remarkable that it’s June, and there’s no sea ice there.”

He said this is the third time in four years that sea ice has been so low in the region. “I don’t think we’ll see sea ice there anymore. It’s over,” he said.

He said the loss of sea ice is likely linked to changes in the ocean, and scientists are trying to understand whether global warming is a factor.

He said the area is important for krill, an important part of the food web for species found in the area. Krill usually hide from predators under the ice in winter, where they graze on algae.

On June 10, there was about 11.4 square meters of sea ice around the entire continent compared to a long-term average for that date of 12.6 square meters.

Dr Phil Reid, who monitors Antarctic conditions at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, said the Bellingshausen Sea had seen “incredible coastal exposure” in winter and summer in recent years.

To the west of the area are Pine Island and Thwaites Glacier, he said The main contributors on the continent are ice loss and sea level rise.

He said ice shelves floating in front of glaciers could disintegrate faster if protective sea ice is absent for longer periods, and this could then accelerate the loss of ice from glaciers, leading to higher global sea levels in the future.

The coastline of the Bellingshausen Sea was the location Tragedy in late 2022 when thousands of emperor penguin chicks died It died during a “catastrophic reproductive failure” in four colonies.

United Nations consultants contributed to this event Push the types into two categories It was upgraded to “endangered” on its international list of threatened species earlier this year.

Dr Peter Fretwell, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who has documented the decline in penguin numbers, said the current loss of sea ice in the region was a “serious problem for penguins, especially emperors”.

“Sea ice forms too late and breaks up too early. This leads to reduced reproductive success and longer journeys to molting areas.”

He added that Adelie penguin numbers are also declining, and crab seals are forced to migrate in the summer to find stable ice.

This month, the Antarctic Peninsula experienced extremely high temperatures over several days. Although “no one has done the numbers,” it is reasonable to suggest that the heatwave was “exacerbated by a lack of sea ice,” Hobbs said.

He added that sea ice usually helps cool any warmer airflow entering the region from the north.

Officials at Argentina’s national meteorological service, Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, said the country’s Esperanza base on the northeastern tip of the peninsula experienced an “extreme heat event” that peaked on June 5 and 6.

Maximum temperatures of 15.4 degrees Celsius and 13.4 degrees Celsius, respectively, were recorded in a period when the average daily maximum was minus 6.2 degrees Celsius. The previous June temperature record was set at 13.3°C on June 12, 1998.