Over the past two decades, the water temperature in the Antarctic Ocean has risen at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. In fact, the amount of heat absorbed is equal to that taken in over the same period of time by the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans combined.
This was stated in a study by the University of New South Wales.The first figure to emerge from the study is the rate at which the temperature of the oceans is accelerating. Compared to the decade 1990/2000, the seas are warming twice as fast. The increase, which has affected all oceans, has not been evenly distributed.
The warming of the Antarctic ocean stands out from the others where it appears to account for 35/43% of global ocean warming from 1970 to 2017, and an even greater percentage in recent years. While the warming of the northern oceans is concentrated in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic water are responsible for more than a third of global ocean warming in the 2005/2020 period” the study states. According to the authors, exactly how this heat absorption will develop in the coming decades and beyond remains highly uncertain.