Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future: the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) is an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative involving Australian and international universities and partner organisations. The scope of SAEF is broad, with three themes (1) climate processes and change, (2) biodiversity status and trends, and (3) environmental stewardship. Assessing the vulnerability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a warming climate is a focus of Theme 1 with objectives including (a) reconstructing past glacier behaviour to assess whether the current retreat is exceptional, or within the realm of natural variability, and to identify thresholds for future ice loss; (b) improving constraints on modern ice sheet boundary conditions and processes such as continental shelf, sub-glacial and sub-ice shelf topography, variability in snow accumulation, ice shelf melting and oceanographic processes, and (c) modelling past, present day and future ice sheet response to climate variability and change, including the influence of anthropogenic climate change, tropical-polar connections and high-latitude climate modes on the ice sheet. SAEF Theme 1 considers the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet, but we have a specific focus on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet including Denman and Vanderford glaciers which have experienced rapid grounding line retreat and have potential to contribute significantly to future sea level rise due to the presence of large subglacial basins inland of their current positions.  I will summarise our initial findings and future scope of work including fresh insights into (1) the past behaviour of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during warm interglacials, and from the Last Glacial Maximum leading into the preindustrial period, (2) the impacts of climate variability including the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode on snow accumulation and surface melt in Antarctica, and (3) preliminary modelling to assess the vulnerability of the ice sheet to climate warming.