Florida State University researchers teamed up with scientists at seven other universities and scoured 20 years’ worth of studies to demonstrate that Earth’s ice sheets are not just frozen slabs of nothing. In fact, their study shows that the ice sheets play an active role in Earth’s carbon cycle.
Why it matters
Scientists once believed that the polar ice sheets were frozen wastelands that didn’t serve a specific purpose. With this new information, researchers can improve the accuracy of carbon cycle and climate change models.
What’s next?
Study co-author Karen Kohfeld, a paelooceanographer from Simon Fraser University, told FSU news there is still uncertainty about how these interactions work, and further research is needed.
“Gaining access to some of the most inaccessible and challenging parts of ice sheet beds via drilling, alongside building numerical models that can represent biogeochemical processes in ice sheets, will be key to future progress in this field.”
The takeaway message
Scientists now know that ice sheets play an important role in Earth’s carbon cycle, which can help improve future climate models.
Where can I learn more?
Kudos to:
The research team included scientists from:
- University of Bristol
- University of Leeds
- Florida State University
- University of California, Riverside
- German Research Centre for Geosciences at Potsdam (GFZ)
- theGEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, Kiel
- Memorial University
- Simon Fraser University