CHICAGO: Shrinking sea ice is significantly increasing the rate at which icebergs scour the Antarctic seabed, a study released on Thursday has found.

About 80 per cent of Antarctic marine life is found on the seabed and these scours crush animals and plants living up to 500 meters below the surface.

While they do promote biodiversity by creating space for marine animals to live, too many scours could change the distribution of key species and affect the type and number of creatures living in Antarctic waters, researchers warned.

The number of ice scours is expected to increase in the short-term as global warming continues to reduce the size and duration of winter sea ice, the study published in the journal Science said.

“Conversely, on longer time scales (centuries) we envisage a drastic reduction of ice disturbance, as glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula retreat past their grounding lines and the amount of freefloating sea ice (which scours the very shallows) decreases,” concluded lead author Dan Smale of the British Antarctic Survey.

This was the first attempt to test the relationship between iceberg scours and the formation of winter sea ice.

Smale’s team laid markers in grid patterns at different depths along the seabed in the West Antarctic Peninsula.

While a host of factors including depth, seabed topography, prevailing wind directions and proximity to icebergs influenced the probability of impact, the strength of the link between scours and sea ice formation was surprising, Smale said.

“During years with a long sea ice season of eight months or so, the disturbance rates were really low, whereas in poor sea ice years the seabed was pounded by ice for most of the year,” he said in a press release accompanying the study.

“This is because icebergs are locked into position by winter sea ice, so they are not free to get pushed around by winds and tides until they crash into the seabed.”—AFP