News - Academia/Research

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge say they have discovered a remarkable case of nature taking up the fight against climate change by taking advantage of the increasing glacial retreat at the Antarctic to create a new carbon dioxide store.

BAS scientists estimate that a new natural `sink' caused by tiny marine plants called phytoplankton is taking around 3.5 million tonnes of carbon - equivalent to 12.8 million tonnes of CO2 - from the ocean and atmosphere each year.

The researchers say the phenomenon is the second largest factor acting against climate change so far discovered on Earth - the largest is new forest growth on land in the Arctic - and should be factored into future climate models and calculations.

Large blooms of phytoplankton are flourishing in enormous areas of open water - around 24,000km2 - left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula, which is having a beneficial impact on climate change.

As the blooms die back, phytoplankton sinks to the sea-bed where it can store carbon for thousands or millions of years.

"It shows nature's ability to thrive in the face of adversity," said lead author of the study published in Global Change Biology, Professor Lloyd Peck from BAS. "Although this is a small amount of carbon compared to global emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere it is nevertheless an important discovery.

"We need to factor this natural carbonabsorption into our calculations and models to predict future climate change. So far we don't know if we will see more events like this around the rest of Antarctica's coast but it's something we'll be keeping a close eye on."