Tiny fossils hold answers to big questions on climate change

The western Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet, and the fastest warming part of the Southern Hemisphere. Scientists have debated the causes of this warming, particularly in light of recent instrumental records of both atmospheric and oceanic warming from the region. As the atmosphere and ocean warm, so the ice sheet (holding an equivalent of five metres of global sea level rise, locked up in ice) becomes vulnerable to collapse. Now research involving The University of Nottingham and led by Cardiff University has used a unique 12,000 year long record from microscopic marine algae fossils to trace glacial ice entering the ocean along the western Antarctic Peninsula. The results have been published. George Swann from The University of Nottingham 's School of Geography said: "The results from this study reveal the processes that have regulated ice-sheeting melting along the west Antarctic Peninsula over the last 12,000 years. By analysing microscopic marine algae preserved in the sea-floor we have been able to reconstruct past changes around the Antarctic coastal margin, information which will help us understand modern day changes in the region." The study has found that the atmosphere had a more significant impact on warming along the western Antarctic Peninsula than oceanic circulation in the late Holocene (from 3,500-250 years ago).