The Atlas of Climate Change. Professor Kirstin Dow

Ice Shelf in place since the shelf’s retreat and collapse in the 1990s. The loss of the ice bridge may allow the ocean currents to disperse huge ice floes.

      Floral responses

      Two native flowering plants (Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis) have increased in abundance at some sites in the maritime Antarctic, providing clear evidence of terrestrial species responding to climate change.

      West Antarctic ice sheet

      The Amundsen Sea area is the most rapidly changing section of the Antarctic ice sheet. The annual mass loss from glaciers represents a significant contribution to sea-level rise.

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      The permafrost around the Arctic is generally warming. In some areas, it is making a weakened coastline more prone to erosion, and causing subsidence, leading to the collapse of roads and buildings. It is also creating lakes of trapped melt water, which may increase carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Each summer, parts of the Greenland ice sheet melt at the edges and on the surface. Although the melt area varies each year, the overall trend since 1979 has been upwards. Surface melt water finds its way through crevasses to the base of the ice, and forms a thin film between ice and bedrock. There are fears that this could increase the speed at which the ice sheet slides towards the sea.

      36–37 The Climate System; 42–43 Climate & Social Crises

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      Shrinking Glaciers

      Alaska