Research Spotlight: Climate response to melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could collapse in the future as the rising sea level and warming climate destabilize the sheet. Previous studies have shown that melting of WAIS could contribute to several meters of global sea level rise over the next few centuries. Some studies have pointed to evidence that WAIS has collapsed in the past during previous interglacial periods, which could give clues to what might happen in the future. To gain additional insight into how the Earth's climate would respond to a collapse of WAIS, Menviel et al. simulated the effects on global climate and the carbon cycle of a massive meltwater discharge from the collapse of the ice sheet. They found that a large meltwater discharge into the Southern Ocean would lead to a substantial cooling of the Southern Ocean, causing a northward expansion of the sea ice margin. Southern Hemisphere westerly winds would intensify. Furthermore, the formation of cold Antarctic Bottom Water would be suppressed, and subsurface warming would take place in areas where Antarctic Bottom Water is formed under present‐day conditions. This subsurface warming would lead to positive feedback that would accelerate the melting of the ice sheet. (Paleoceanography, doi:10.1029/2009PA001892, 2010)