PARIS: Melting ice from the world’s glaciers attributable to climate change is hoping to discharge an extra 15 million tonnes of ‘organic carbon’ into the world’s rivers and oceans over the next 35 years, researchers says, with unknown impacts on marine life, Carbon Brief reports.
According to the website, the report – originally published in Nature Geoscience, the first to quantify the total organic carbon stores in the world’s ice – says that the 15mT represents a 47% increase on releases than would otherwise be the case.
The process will speed over time, the report says, with the organic carbon, which provides food for tiny organisms at the bottom of the food chain, set to have unknown affects on marine life and water chemistry, Carbon Brief adds.
“The thing people have to think about is what this means for the Earth. We know we’re losing glaciers, but what does that mean for marine life, fisheries, things downstream that we care about? There’s a whole host of issues besides the water (sea-level) issue,” co-author, Prof Robert Spencer said.
