The Tip Of The Iceberg

A recent study said that giant icebergs could be blamed for the processes that absorb up to 20% of carbon in the Southern Ocean’s carbon cycle.

21:21 13 January 2016

Researchers, who have examined satellite data between 2003 and 2013, have said that giant icebergs release nutrients into the surrounding waters, a process that trigger plankton blooms that absorb the carbon.

 

The study, which is the first of its kind, has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. It involved the study of 175 satellite images that tracked the passage of 17 giant icebergs through the open waters of the ocean surrounding Antarctica.

 

The team of scientists said: "We detect substantially enhanced chlorophyll levels, typically over a radius at least 4-10 times the iceberg's length, which can persist for more than a month following passage of a giant iceberg."

 

Meanwhile, co-author Grant Bigg from the University of Sheffield, said that the results showed that giant icebergs has "much bigger plumes of phytoplankton (microscopic plant-like free-floating organisms) production in the ocean as a result of fertilisation by the iron that is in the meltwater... than we had previously expected.

 

"This means that the role of giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle is bigger than we had previously suspected,"