Recent Decrease of Summer Sea Ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Turner, John; Guarino, Maria Vittoria; Arnatt, Jack; Jena, Babula; Marshall, Gareth J.; Phillips, Tony; Bajish, C. C.; Clem, Kyle R.; Wang, Zhaomin; Andersson, Tom R.; Murphy, Eugene J.; Cavanagh, Rachel

doi:10.1029/2020gl087127

Cited by 78 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Parkinson (2019) shown that sea ice coverage trends were reversed during the 2014-2018 period with sea ice loss in the Weddell and Ross Sea and in the Indian and Western Pacific Ocean; whereas a sea ice gain was observed for the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Sea. These opposite sea ice trends were mainly explained by the combination of atmospheric events (El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Southern Annular Mode fluctuations and regional circulation flows) and oceanic variability (subsurface heat anomalies and polynyas creation; Parkinson, 2019;Turner et al, 2020). Oceanic biogeochemical regions of the Southern Ocean might also be affected by climate variability, since a poleward expansion of subantarctic waters and a contraction in biogeochemical regions closer to the Antarctic continent were projected for 2100 (Reygondeau et al, 2020).…”

Section: Main Physical Factors Explaining Biogeochemical Spatial Varimentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and Biogeochemical Regionalization of the Southern Ocean and the CCAMLR Zone 48.1

2021

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The Southern Ocean plays a major role in the Earth’s climate, provides fisheries products and help the maintenance of biodiversity. The degree of correspondence between physical and biogeochemical spatial variability and regionalization were investigated by calculating the main physical factors that statistically explained the biogeochemical variability within the Southern Ocean and the 48.1 zone of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The mean value of physical and biogeochemical variables was estimated during austral summer within a grid of 1° × 1° south of 50°S. The regionalization was developed using both non-hierarchical and hierarchical clustering method, whereas BIO-ENV package and distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) were applied in order to calculate which physical factors primarily explained the biogeochemical spatial variability. A total of 12 physical and 18 biogeochemical significant clusters were identified for the Southern Ocean (alpha: 0.05). The combination of bathymetry and sea ice coverage majorly explained biogeochemical variability (Spearman rank correlation coefficient: 0.68) and db-RDA indicated that physical variables expressed the 60.1% of biogeochemical variance. On the other hand, 14 physical and 16 biogeochemical significant clusters were identified for 48.1 CCAMLR zone. Bathymetry was the main factor explaining biogeochemical variability (Spearman coefficient: 0.81) and db-RDA analysis resulted in 77.1% of biogeochemical variance. The correspondence between physical and biogeochemical regions was higher for CCAMLR 48.1 zone with respect to the whole Southern Ocean. Our results provide useful information for both Southern Ocean and CCAMLR 48.1 zone ecosystem management and modeling parametrization.

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Section: Main Physical Factors Explaining Biogeochemical Spatial Varimentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and Biogeochemical Regionalization of the Southern Ocean and the CCAMLR Zone 48.1

2021

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“…According to Meehl et al (2019), these negative SIE anomalies in recent years have been caused by upwelling of warm subsurface waters. The negative SIE in the Weddell Sea since 2016 has been described by Turner et al (2020), who relate the recent sea ice anomaly with strong westerly winds and the reappearance of the Maud Rise Polynya.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The negative SIE in the Weddell Sea since 2016 has been described by Turner et al . (2020), who relate the recent sea ice anomaly with strong westerly winds and the reappearance of the Maud Rise Polynya.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new approach to classification of 40 years of Antarctic sea ice concentration data

Wachter

Reiser

Friedl

et al. 2020

Intl Journal of Climatology

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In this paper, we present a characterization of Antarctic sea ice based on the classification of annual sea ice concentration (SIC) data from 1979 to 2018. A clustering algorithm was applied to provide a climatological description of significant annual cycles of SIC and their spatial distribution around the Southern Ocean. Based on these classification results, we investigate the variability of SIC cycles on decadal and inter-annual time scales. First, we discuss significant spatial shifts of SIC cycles during 1979-1998 and 1999-2018. In the Weddell Sea and in large parts of the Ross Sea, we observed higher SIC during the summer season, and an extension of sea ice cover in winter compared to the long-term average. Second, we introduce the Climatological Sea Ice Anomaly Index (CSIAI), which is an annual measure for year-round sea ice anomalies of the Southern Ocean and its regional sub-sectors. By relating selected years of significant sea ice conditions (1981, 2007 and 2014) with atmospheric influences, we demonstrate that the CSIAI is very useful for assessing interannular Antarctic SIC variability. Positive and negative sea ice anomalies can be qualitatively explained by atmospheric circulation anomalies in the years 1981 and 2007. However, in 2014, the year with the largest observed sea ice extent in our time series, we found that this positive sea ice anomaly was surprisingly not associated with a stationary and inter-seasonally persistent pattern of circulation anomaly. This suggests that sub-seasonal to seasonal circulation anomalies and ocean-related processes favoured the formation of the sea ice maximum in 2014. With this study we provide additional information on the long-term annual SIC variability around Antarctica. Furthermore, our classification approach and its results have potential for application in the evaluation of sea ice model results.

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“…In addition to strong year‐to‐year variability, Antarctic sea ice also exhibited a long‐term positive trend over 1979–2012 (e.g., Parkinson & Cavalieri, 2012), that was then followed by anomalously negative anomalies since 2016 (e.g., Reid et al., 2020; Turner et al., 2020). The long‐term trend of January SIC is heterogeneous in space, characterized with increases in the western Ross and Weddell Seas and decreases in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas (Figure ; Hobbs et al., 2016; Holland, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Influence of the Midlatitude South Atlantic Variability in Spring on Antarctic Summer Sea Ice

Zhang

Gan

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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Antarctic sea ice, a sensitive indicator of climate change, has profound influence on global weather and climate (Hobbs et al., 2016). Since the satellite era, Antarctic sea ice experienced a modest increase of extent (Zhang et al., 2019), in contrast to the accelerating melt of Arctic sea ice (Stroeve et al., 2007). Sea ice simulated by climate models, however, shows a decreasing trend over both the Arctic and Antarctica (Eisenman et al., 2011; Turner et al., 2013). Therefore, much attention has recently been focused on understanding Antarctic climate and sea ice variability. Many studies have revealed the responses of Antarctic sea ice to the extrapolar ocean and atmosphere variability, through thermal and mechanical processes (Lefebvre & Goosse, 2005). On seasonal to interannual timescales, El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Southern Annular Mode (SAM) play key roles in influencing Antarctic sea ice variability, primarily through the processes of the ENSO/SAM-induced atmospheric advection and wind-driven sea ice drift (Doddridge & Marshall, 2017; Kohyama & Hartmann, 2016; Simpkins et al., 2012). Concerning the increasing trend in Antarctic sea ice, several mechanisms have been

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Recent Decrease of Summer Sea Ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Cited by 78 publications

References 27 publications

Physical and Biogeochemical Regionalization of the Southern Ocean and the CCAMLR Zone 48.1

Physical and Biogeochemical Regionalization of the Southern Ocean and the CCAMLR Zone 48.1

A new approach to classification of 40 years of Antarctic sea ice concentration data

Remote Influence of the Midlatitude South Atlantic Variability in Spring on Antarctic Summer Sea Ice

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