2005, ‘Ice-sheet and sea-level changes

• Main Authors: Richard B. Alley, Peter U. Clark, Ian Joughin
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Greenland; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.561.21; http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~phuybrec/pdf/Alley_Science_2005.pdf

Future sea-level rise is an important issue related to the continuing buildup of at-mospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with the potential to raise sea level È70 meters if completely melted, dominate uncertainties in projected sea-level change. Freshwater fluxes from these ice sheets also may affect oceanic circulation, contributing to climate change. Observational and modeling advances have reduced many uncertainties related to ice-sheet behavior, but recently detected, rapid ice-marginal changes contributing to sea-level rise may indicate greater ice-sheet sensitivity to warming than previously considered. B ecause a heavy concentration of the population lives along coastlines, even small amounts of sea-level rise would have substantial societal and economic impacts through coastal erosion, increased susceptibil-ity to storm surges, groundwater contamination