Warming temperatures may help to “ darken ” the ice sheets of Greenland as algae on the open blooms , a process that could lead to the quickening of melting and cause sea levels to rise further than predicted .
This is not the first time that the presence of alga on the glass sheet of paper of Greenland have been find , but until now few considered what impact it might have . fit in tothe BBC , scientist are concerned that as temperatures increase , it will encourage the plants to grow and make the surface of the ice sheets darker . This in turn will absorb more heat and increase the ice thawing .
By making the Earth’s surface darker , the algae vary the ice sheetsalbedo effect . This is the term used to name how much solar radioactivity is reflect . White C. P. Snow reflects much of the sunshine that hits it , which in turn has a cooling effect on the snowfall and ice . As the algae grows , it cut this albedo effect and rather than cool down , it warms the ice . This increases the charge per unit at which it then melts .
Researchers have started a five - class project , calledBlack and Bloom , to track how the different species of alga on the ice sheet of paper move and colonize raw patches . From this , they hope to make better projections about what might come in the future as temperatures continue to rise , particularly in relation to the ocean level .
“ People are very upset about the possibility that the deoxyephedrine sheet might be melting faster and faster in the future , ” Professor Martyn Tranter , who is guide the current project , told the BBC ’s David Shukman . “ We suspect that in a heating climate these dark algae will mature over larger and larger parts of the Greenland icing sheet and it might well be that they will make more melting and an speedup of ocean level rise . ”
alga is not intend to be the only elbow room in which the albedo effect is bring down , however . research worker have also beeninvestigating how pollutionfrom cities , soot from wildfires , and ash from biomass burn settles on the ice sheets and again causes a blackening in Greenland .
It is presently thought that the melting of Greenland ’s ice-skating rink sheets add about 1 millimeter to the fair global sea level every class . If it were all to melt in one go , it would be catastrophic for many low - lying country and metropolis around the planet . Understanding how Greenland ’s methamphetamine weather sheet are switch , therefore , is of worldwide significance .
