{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/332392", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-08-25T16:22:37Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2021-09-07", "title": "Societal importance of Antarctic negative feedbacks on climate change: blue carbon gains from sea ice, ice shelf and glacier losses", "description": "Abstract

Diminishing prospects for environmental preservation under climate change are intensifying efforts to boost capture, storage and sequestration (long-term burial) of carbon. However, as Earth\uffe2\uff80\uff99s biological carbon sinks also shrink, remediation has become a key part of the narrative for terrestrial ecosystems. In contrast, blue carbon on polar continental shelves have stronger pathways to sequestration and have increased with climate-forced marine ice losses\uffe2\uff80\uff94becoming the largest known natural negative feedback on climate change. Here we explore the size and complex dynamics of blue carbon gains with spatiotemporal changes in sea ice (60\uffe2\uff80\uff93100 MtCyear\uffe2\uff88\uff921), ice shelves (4\uffe2\uff80\uff9340 MtCyear\uffe2\uff88\uff921\uffe2\uff80\uff89=\uffe2\uff80\uff89giant iceberg generation) and glacier retreat (<\uffe2\uff80\uff891 MtCyear\uffe2\uff88\uff921). Estimates suggest that, amongst these, reduced duration of seasonal sea ice is most important. Decreasing sea ice extent drives longer (not necessarily larger biomass) smaller cell-sized phytoplankton blooms, increasing growth of many primary consumers and benthic carbon storage\uffe2\uff80\uff94where sequestration chances are maximal. However, sea ice losses also create positive feedbacks in shallow waters through increased iceberg movement and scouring of benthos. Unlike loss of sea ice, which enhances existing sinks, ice shelf losses generate brand new carbon sinks both where giant icebergs were, and in their wake. These also generate small positive feedbacks from scouring, minimised by repeat scouring at biodiversity hotspots. Blue carbon change from glacier retreat has been least well quantified, and although emerging fjords are small areas, they have high storage-sequestration conversion efficiencies, whilst blue carbon in polar waters faces many diverse and complex stressors. The identity of these are known (e.g. fishing, warming, ocean acidification, non-indigenous species and plastic pollution) but not their magnitude of impact. In order to mediate multiple stressors, research should focus on wider verification of blue carbon gains, projecting future change, and the broader environmental and economic benefits to safeguard blue carbon ecosystems through law.The ecological drivers of soil biodiversity in the Southern Hemisphere remain underexplored. Here, in a continental survey comprising 647 sites, across 58 degrees of latitude between tropical Australia and Antarctica, we evaluated the major ecological patterns in soil biodiversity and relative abundance of ecological clusters within a co\uffe2\uff80\uff90occurrence network of soil bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Six major ecological clusters (modules) of co\uffe2\uff80\uff90occurring soil taxa were identified. These clusters exhibited strong shifts in their relative abundances with increasing distance from the equator. Temperature was the major environmental driver of the relative abundance of ecological clusters when Australia and Antarctica are analyzed together. Temperature, aridity, soil properties and vegetation types were the major drivers of the relative abundance of different ecological clusters within Australia. Our data supports significant reductions in the diversity of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes in Antarctica vs. Australia linked to strong reductions in temperature. However, we only detected small latitudinal variations in soil biodiversity within Australia. Different environmental drivers regulate the diversity of soil archaea (temperature and soil carbon), bacteria (aridity, vegetation attributes and pH) and eukaryotes (vegetation type and soil carbon) across Australia. Together, our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms driving soil biodiversity in the Southern Hemisphere.Arctic change is expected to destabilize terrestrial carbon (terrOC) in soils and permafrost, leading to fluvial release, greenhouse gas emission and climate feedback. However, landscape heterogeneity and location-specific observations complicate large-scale assessments of terrOC mobilization. Here we reveal differences in terrOC release, deduced from the Circum-Arctic Sediment Carbon Database (CASCADE) using source-diagnostic (\uffce\uffb413C-\uffce\uff9414C) and carbon accumulation data. The results show five-times larger terrOC release from the Eurasian than from the American Arctic. Most of the circum-Arctic terrOC originates from near-surface soils (61%); 30% stems from Pleistocene-age permafrost. TerrOC translocation, relative to land-based terrOC stocks, varies by a factor of five between circum-Arctic regions. Shelf seas with higher relative terrOC translocation follow the spatial pattern of recent Arctic warming, while such with lower translocation reflect long-distance lateral transport with efficient remineralization of terrOC. This study provides a receptor-based perspective for how terrOC release varies across the circum-Arctic.