West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability
Mass loss from the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has increased in recent decades, suggestive of sustained ocean forcing or an ongoing, possibly unstable, response to a past climate anomaly. Lengthening satellite records appear to be incompatible with either process, however, re...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:518311 2023-05-15T13:23:40+02:00 West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability Jenkins, Adrian Shoosmith, Deb Dutrieux, Pierre Jacobs, Stan Kim, Tae Wan Lee, Sang Hoon Ha, Ho Kyung Stammerjohn, Sharon 2018-10 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/1/Jenkins_et_al_Nature_Geoscience_2018%20%28002%29.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0207-4 en eng Springer Nature https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/1/Jenkins_et_al_Nature_Geoscience_2018%20%28002%29.pdf Jenkins, Adrian orcid:0000-0002-9117-0616 Shoosmith, Deb; Dutrieux, Pierre; Jacobs, Stan; Kim, Tae Wan; Lee, Sang Hoon; Ha, Ho Kyung; Stammerjohn, Sharon. 2018 West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability. Nature Geoscience, 11 (10). 733-738. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4 2023-02-04T19:45:35Z Mass loss from the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has increased in recent decades, suggestive of sustained ocean forcing or an ongoing, possibly unstable, response to a past climate anomaly. Lengthening satellite records appear to be incompatible with either process, however, revealing both periodic hiatuses in acceleration and intermittent episodes of thinning. Here we use ocean temperature, salinity, dissolved-oxygen and current measurements taken from 2000 to 2016 near the Dotson Ice Shelf to determine temporal changes in net basal melting. A decadal cycle dominates the ocean record, with melt changing by a factor of about four between cool and warm extremes via a nonlinear relationship with ocean temperature. A warm phase that peaked around 2009 coincided with ice-shelf thinning and retreat of the grounding line, which re-advanced during a post-2011 cool phase. These observations demonstrate how discontinuous ice retreat is linked with ocean variability, and that the strength and timing of decadal extremes is more influential than changes in the longer-term mean state. The nonlinear response of melting to temperature change heightens the sensitivity of Amundsen Sea ice shelves to such variability, possibly explaining the vulnerability of the ice sheet in that sector, where subsurface ocean temperatures are relatively high. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Dotson Ice Shelf Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet Dotson Ice Shelf ENVELOPE(-112.367,-112.367,-74.400,-74.400) Nature Geoscience 11 10 733 738 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Mass loss from the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has increased in recent decades, suggestive of sustained ocean forcing or an ongoing, possibly unstable, response to a past climate anomaly. Lengthening satellite records appear to be incompatible with either process, however, revealing both periodic hiatuses in acceleration and intermittent episodes of thinning. Here we use ocean temperature, salinity, dissolved-oxygen and current measurements taken from 2000 to 2016 near the Dotson Ice Shelf to determine temporal changes in net basal melting. A decadal cycle dominates the ocean record, with melt changing by a factor of about four between cool and warm extremes via a nonlinear relationship with ocean temperature. A warm phase that peaked around 2009 coincided with ice-shelf thinning and retreat of the grounding line, which re-advanced during a post-2011 cool phase. These observations demonstrate how discontinuous ice retreat is linked with ocean variability, and that the strength and timing of decadal extremes is more influential than changes in the longer-term mean state. The nonlinear response of melting to temperature change heightens the sensitivity of Amundsen Sea ice shelves to such variability, possibly explaining the vulnerability of the ice sheet in that sector, where subsurface ocean temperatures are relatively high. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jenkins, Adrian Shoosmith, Deb Dutrieux, Pierre Jacobs, Stan Kim, Tae Wan Lee, Sang Hoon Ha, Ho Kyung Stammerjohn, Sharon |
spellingShingle |
Jenkins, Adrian Shoosmith, Deb Dutrieux, Pierre Jacobs, Stan Kim, Tae Wan Lee, Sang Hoon Ha, Ho Kyung Stammerjohn, Sharon West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
author_facet |
Jenkins, Adrian Shoosmith, Deb Dutrieux, Pierre Jacobs, Stan Kim, Tae Wan Lee, Sang Hoon Ha, Ho Kyung Stammerjohn, Sharon |
author_sort |
Jenkins, Adrian |
title |
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
title_short |
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
title_full |
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
title_fullStr |
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
title_full_unstemmed |
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
title_sort |
west antarctic ice sheet retreat in the amundsen sea driven by decadal oceanic variability |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/1/Jenkins_et_al_Nature_Geoscience_2018%20%28002%29.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0207-4 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-112.367,-112.367,-74.400,-74.400) |
geographic |
Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet Dotson Ice Shelf |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet Dotson Ice Shelf |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Dotson Ice Shelf Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Dotson Ice Shelf Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518311/1/Jenkins_et_al_Nature_Geoscience_2018%20%28002%29.pdf Jenkins, Adrian orcid:0000-0002-9117-0616 Shoosmith, Deb; Dutrieux, Pierre; Jacobs, Stan; Kim, Tae Wan; Lee, Sang Hoon; Ha, Ho Kyung; Stammerjohn, Sharon. 2018 West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea driven by decadal oceanic variability. Nature Geoscience, 11 (10). 733-738. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0207-4 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
733 |
op_container_end_page |
738 |
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1766373875085475840 |