Antarctica: threats from scientific research and climate change

Question 1

How many nations complete scientific research on Antartica?

Answer 1

30

Question 2

What are the benefits of year-round freezing temperatures for scientific research?

Answer 2

when snow fell hundreds of thousands of years ago it buried things like tiny bubbles of ancient air and even radioactive substances

Question 3

________ research has provided the clearest link between levels of _________ _____ in the atmosphere and ______ _______ temperatures.

Answer 3

Antarctic, greenhouse gases, global surface

Question 4

What has scientific research at Antarctica revealed about the climate?

Answer 4

• climates follow natural cycles
• climates will continue to change in the future (with or without humans)
• human activities have contributed to contemporary climate change (global warming)

Question 5

What is the greatest impact of climate change at Antarctica?

Answer 5

melting ice and deteriorating permafrost

Question 6

However, what is an opposite trend which wouldn’t be expected at Antarctica during climate change?

Answer 6

East Antarctica’s ice sheet is thickening since warmer seas increase evaporation which condenses into clouds and then falls as extra snow

Question 7

What part of Antarctica is melting the most?

Answer 7

the Antarctic Peninsula

Question 8

By how much has the temperatures at the Antarctic Peninsula increased by every decade in the past 60 years?

Answer 8

0.5 degrees celcius (5 times faster than the rest of the world)

Question 9

Does the melting of sea ice have an effect on the sea level?

Answer 9

no, its when the melting of the ice allows land-based ice to slide into the sea which adds additional water into the sea which was not there before