The Larsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica (Larissa): Polar systems bound together, changing fast

Climatic, cryospheric, and biologic changes taking place in the northern Antarctic Peninsula provide examples for how ongoing systemic change may progress through the entire Antarctic system. A large, interdisciplinary research project focused on the Larsen Ice Shelf system, synthesized here, has documented dramatic ice cover, oceanographic, and ecosystem changes in the Antarctic Peninsula during the Holocene and the present period of rapid regional warming. The responsiveness of the region results from its position in the climate and ocean system, in which a narrow continental block extends across zonal atmospheric and ocean flow, creating high snow accumulation, strong gradients and gyres, dynamic oceanography, outlet glaciers feeding into many fjords and bays having steep topography, and a continental shelf that contains many glacially carved troughs separated by areas of glacial sediment accumulation. The microcosm of the northern Antarctic Peninsula has a tendency to change rapidly-rapid relative not just to Antarctica's mainland but compared to the rest of the planet as well-and it is generally warmer than the rest of Antarctica. Both its Holocene and modern glaciological retreats offer a picture of how larger areas of Antarctica farther south might change under future warming.