London, Nov. 10: In what can be seen as a positive impact of global warming, large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton that can absorb carbon dioxide from atmosphere are flourishing in the area opened up by massive ice melting in Antarctica.
Without ice cover, the water get exposed to light and circulation of nutrients that help the plants move in and take up extra amounts of carbon dioxide, becoming what scientists call a "carbon sink".
"This is really massive — it’s like having a new forest the size of Wales," said Professor Lloyd Peck, a near-shore marine biologist from the British Antarctic Survey.
Mr Peck estimates that this new natural sink is taking up 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dissolved in the ocean. This is the amount of carbon absorbed by the equivalent of between 6,000 and 17,000 hectares of tropical rain forest.
However, he says this is a very small amount compared to the global emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
"It is, nevertheless, an important discovery: It shows nature’s ability to thrive in the face of adversity," says Mr Peck, who led the study published this week in Global Change Biology. The new Antarctic phytoplankton blooms are the second largest biological feedback holding climate change in check. The first are the new forests growing around the Arctic.
"If the ice melting continues then, over thousands of years, these new blooms have the potential to be one of the most important sinks on earth," Mr Peck adds.
