Elephant seals help uncover slower-than-expected Antarctic melting

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2012/2012-31.shtml

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Elephant seals help uncover slower-than-expected Antarctic melting[/font]

21 June 2012
AGU Release No. 12-31
For Immediate Release

[font size=3]WASHINGTON—Don’t let the hobbling, wobbling, and blubber fool you into thinking elephant seals are merely sluggish sun bathers. In fact, scientists are benefiting from these seals’ surprisingly lengthy migrations to determine critical information about Antarctic melting and future sea level rise.

A team of scientists have drilled holes through an Antarctic ice shelf, the Fimbul Ice Shelf, to gather the first direct measurements regarding melting of the shelf’s underside. A group of elephant seals, outfitted with sensors that measure salinity, temperature, and depth sensors added fundamental information to the scientists’ data set, which led the researchers to conclude that parts of eastern Antarctica are melting at significantly lower rates than current models predict.


“It has been unclear, until now, how much warm deep water rises below the Fimbul Ice shelf, and previous ocean models, focusing on the circulation below the Fimbul Ice Shelf, have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high, suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is actually not taking place as fast as previously thought,” said lead author of the study and PhD student at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Tore Hattermann.

The Fimbul Ice Shelf – located along eastern Antarctica in the Weddell Sea – is the sixth largest of the forty-three ice shelves that dapple Antarctica’s perimeter. Both its size and proximity to the Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet – the largest ice sheet on Earth, which if it melted, could lead to extreme changes in sea level – have made the Fimbul Ice Shelf an attractive object of study.

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http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/pip/2012GL051012.shtml
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051012

I can't help myself; I find that photo disturbing.

[phantom power]

1. "stick all the gadgets on me you want, opposable-thumb-guys, you're still boned"

[dipsydoodle]

2. I think it looks sweet

They tag animals and birds for a variety of reasons : this is really no different.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. I realize that animals and birds are tagged… and yet…

I tend to think of bird legbands as irritating for the birds, but not to the extent I imagine this to be. (Like I say, I can’t help myself…)

[enough]

4. I really hope they have strict limits on how long any individual has to "wear" that thing.

And that they're monitoring vigilantly to see what kind of effects it's having while in place.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Elephant seals shed their skin usually between January and April

Not sure when the picture was taken. Aside from that their thick skin exists mainly to protect their blubber. I would imagine the device is either glued on sewn on without the animal feeling anything and doubt the animal is even aware of it. It looks odd on a head on view - that seal could be 16 feet long and weigh over 6000 lbs.

[Nihil]

6. Yep, it's incredibly foreshortened ...

> It looks odd on a head on view - that seal could be 16 feet long and weigh over 6000 lbs.

Considering that its eyes are open, I strongly suspect that the photo was
also taken with a reasonable length telephoto lens (adding to the foreshortening)
as a human close to it would be at risk of more than a big tongue sticking out ...