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Poleward shift of Circumpolar Deep Water threatens the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 728–734 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Future sea-level rise projections carry large uncertainties, mainly driven by the unknown response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to climate change. During the past four decades, the contribution of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to sea-level rise has increased. However, unlike for West Antarctica, the causes of East Antarctic ice-mass loss are largely unexplored. Here, using oceanographic observations off East Antarctica (80–160° E) we show that mid-depth Circumpolar Deep Water has warmed by 0.8–2.0 °C along the continental slope between 1930–1990 and 2010–2018. Our results indicate that this warming may be implicated in East Antarctic ice-mass loss and coastal water-mass reorganization. Further, it is associated with an interdecadal, summer-focused poleward shift of the westerlies over the Southern Ocean. Since this shift is predicted to persist into the twenty-first century, the oceanic heat supply to East Antarctica may continue to intensify, threatening the ice sheet’s future stability.

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Fig. 1: Warming of the Indian Ocean sector of the East Antarctic continental slope.
Fig. 2: Changes in CDW potential temperature and their link to the southward migration of the S-ACC.
Fig. 3: Changes in WSC and their link to the southward migration of the S-ACC.
Fig. 4: Warming of Vincennes Bay.

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Data availability

The data used in this study encompass hydrographic measurements from the following public data centres: Southern Ocean Atlas (http://woceatlas.tamu.edu); Argo (https://argo.ucsd.edu/about/); and the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (http://cchdo.ucsd.edu). We also used the Marine Mammals Exploring the Ocean Pole to Pole consortium data (http://www.meop.net) and CTD and XCTD data from the Institute of Cetacean Research (https://www.icrwhale.org/oceanograhicdata.html). Bathymetric data were obtained from Rtopo 1.0.5 (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.741917) and altimetric data via the AVISO (https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/home.html) and MyOcean (http://marine.copernicus.eu) websites. The reanalysis wind data are available via the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts website (https://www.ecmwf.int/). The 18-year Antarctic ice shelf thickness time series was obtained from F. Paolo and can be downloaded from https://sealevel.nasa.gov/data/dataset/?identifier=SLCP_ice_shelf_dh_v1_1. The Marshall SAM index (station-based) can be retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/marshall-southern-annular-mode-sam-index-station-based.

Code availability

The MATLAB scripts used for the analysis described in this study can be obtained from L.H.-B. upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

L.H.-B. received grant support from the European Research Council Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, through grant no. 661015 and the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research. A.C.N.G. received grant support from the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Oceans and Atmosphere and Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Laura Herraiz-Borreguero

  2. Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Laura Herraiz-Borreguero

  3. Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Alberto C. Naveira Garabato

Authors
  1. Laura Herraiz-Borreguero
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Contributions

L.H.-B. proposed the research, led the data analysis and prepared the figures. L.H.-B. and A.C.N.G. interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Laura Herraiz-Borreguero.

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Nature Climate Change thanks Tore Hattermann, Kaihe Yamazaki and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary text and references, Figs. 1–12 and Table 1.

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Herraiz-Borreguero, L., Naveira Garabato, A.C. Poleward shift of Circumpolar Deep Water threatens the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 728–734 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01424-3

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