Abstract
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet contains the vast majority of Earth’s glacier ice (about 52 metres sea-level equivalent), but is often viewed as less vulnerable to global warming than the West Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets. However, some regions of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet have lost mass over recent decades, prompting the need to re-evaluate its sensitivity to climate change. Here we review the response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to past warm periods, synthesize current observations of change and evaluate future projections. Some marine-based catchments that underwent notable mass loss during past warm periods are losing mass at present but most projections indicate increased accumulation across the East Antarctic Ice Sheet over the twenty-first century, keeping the ice sheet broadly in balance. Beyond 2100, high-emissions scenarios generate increased ice discharge and potentially several metres of sea-level rise within just a few centuries, but substantial mass loss could be averted if the Paris Agreement to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius is satisfied.
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Acknowledgements
C.R.S., B.W.J.M. and S.S.R.J. acknowledge funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R000824/1). M.A.K., N.J.A. and M.H.E. are supported by the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (project number SR200100008) and R.S.J. is supported by the Special Research Initiative, Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SR200100005). N.J.A. (FT160100029), M.H.E. (DP190100494, LP200100406) and R.S.J. (DE210101923) also acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council. M.H.E. and M.A.K. also acknowledge support from the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research (CSHOR), a joint research centre between QNLM, CSIRO, UNSW and UTAS. A.F. was supported by the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership through funding from the Australian Government as part of the Antarctic Science Collaboration Initiative. T.L.E. was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/T007443/1) and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 869304, PROTECT contribution number 36. J.T.M.L. acknowledges support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), award no. 80NSSC20K1123. M.H.E. and A.F. thank S. Rintoul for discussions on ocean data coverage around East Antarctica. T.L.E. thanks G. Garner and R. Kopp for help with the IPCC (2021) datasets.
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C.R.S. developed the idea for the paper and all authors provided input on its initial contents and structure. C.R.S. drafted the first section. G.J.G.P. and S.S.R.J. drafted the second section, with contributions from M.J.B. and T.v.d.F. R.S.J. drafted the third section, with contributions from M.J.B. C.R.S. and B.W.J.M. drafted the fourth section, with contributions from M.H.E. and A.F. J.T.M.L. and B.M. drafted the fifth section, with input from M.A.K. C.R. and T.L.E. drafted the sixth section, with contributions from M.H.E. C.R.S. drafted the final section, with input from T.L.E. All authors provided comments and edits on all sections of the paper. G.J.G.P. produced Fig. 1, with input from C.R.S. P.L.W. produced Fig. 2, with input from C.R.S., M.A.K. and R.S.J. R.S.J. produced Fig. 3, with input from B.W.J.M. and C.R.S. A.F., M.H.E. and B.W.J.M. produced Fig. 4. J.T.M.L. and B.M. produced Fig. 5. T.L.E. carried out the analysis and produced Fig. 6, with input from C.R.
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Stokes, C.R., Abram, N.J., Bentley, M.J. et al. Response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to past and future climate change. Nature 608, 275–286 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04946-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04946-0
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