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melt Antarctic ice is decelerate Earth ’s strong sea current , allot to a new field of study .
The inflow of stale meltwater could retard the Antarctic Circumpolar Current by up to 20 % by 2050 , researcher reported March 3 in the journalEnvironmental Research Letters . The slowdown could affect sea temperature , ocean level rise and Antarctica ’s ecosystem , the squad said .
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on Earth.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current , which swirls clockwise around Antarctica , transport around a billion liter ( 264 million gallons ) of water per second . It keep warm water off from the Antarctic Ice Sheet and unite the Atlantic , Pacific , Amerindic and southerly oceans , providing a tract for heat central between these body of water .
clime changehas caused Antarctic ice to dissolve rapidly in recent years , adding an inflow of unused , inhuman water to the Southern Ocean . To research how this inflow will affect the Antarctic Circumpolar Current ’s strength and circulation , Bishakhdatta Gayen , a fluent mechanist at the University of Melbourne in Australia , and his colleague used Australia ’s libertine supercomputer and mood simulator to model fundamental interaction between the sea and the shabu sheet .
Related : Are Atlantic Ocean currents weakening ? A Modern sketch finds no , but other experts are n’t so trusted .
Fresh , cold meltwater likely weakens the current , the team found . The meltwater thin the surrounding seawater and slows convection between aerofoil water and deep water near the ice sheet . Over time , the deep Southern Ocean will warm up as convection work less stale water from the surface . Meltwater also crap its way farther north before pass . Together , these changes affect the density profile of the domain ’s oceans , which drives the slowdown .
Such a slowdown could leave more warm water to reach the Antarctic Ice Sheet , thereby exacerbating the melting that ’s already been observed . In addition to contribute to sea level rise , this could supply even more meltwater to the Southern Ocean and weaken the Antarctic Circumpolar Current further .
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current also act as a barrier against invading specie by directing non - native plant — and any animals hitching a ride on them — off from the continent . If the current slows or weakens , this barrier could become less effective .
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" It ’s like a merry - go - round . It keeps on go around and around , so it pack a longer fourth dimension to come back to Antarctica , " Gayen said . " If it slow down down , what will happen is , thing can transmigrate very quickly to the south-polar coastline . "
It ’s unmanageable to say when we ’ll start to feel the effects — if we have n’t started feeling them already . The Antarctic Circumpolar Current has n’t been monitored very long because it ’s in such a distant location , Gayen severalize Live Science . To well differentiate thawing - induced changes from baseline condition , " we need a longsighted - terminus phonograph record , " he say .
The upshot of the retardation will be felt even in other oceans . " This is where the sea heart ride , " Gayen say . " If something stops there , or something different is happening , it ’s going to affect each and every ocean circulation . "
Antarctica quiz:Test your knowledge on Earth’s frozen continent
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