The Importance of Sea Ice: An Overview
The Importance of Sea Ice: An Overview
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海冰的重要性：概述
DOI：
10.1002/9781444317145.ch1
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
H. Hellmer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Gerhard Dieckmann;H. Hellmer
在海水最初冻结之后，海冰被物理、生物和化学过程的相互作用深刻地改变，形成一种极不均匀的半固体基质。当冰回到水中时，海洋、大气和大陆的输入都会影响冰的形成、固结和随后的融化。海冰最重要的特性可能是，尽管它是固体，但它的密度低于海水，因此它是漂浮的。在一年的过程中，北冰洋、南大洋以及波罗的海和其他海域(如里海和鄂霍次克)的大量海水在空中经历了冻结和融化的循环。冬季，海冰覆盖的面积高达地球表面的7%，因此显然是地球上最大的生物群之一(科米索，第4章)。除了因纽特人，他们在几千年的时间里适应了与北极海冰密切相关的生活，直到上个世纪之交，海冰只是一个恶劣的环境，阻碍了海上航线的航行和鸟类和哺乳动物的狩猎(Fogg，1992；Week，1998)。只是在过去的200年里，而且大部分是在过去的100年里，探险性的探险访问了极地海洋，我们对海冰在全球范围内的重要性的理解才开始发展。今天，我们知道，海冰的形成和退化的年度周期不仅在支配世界气候方面发挥着关键作用，而且还影响着海洋到深渊的过程。从微生物到鲸鱼甚至人类的海洋动植物的生命周期也受到大规模结冰周期的影响。海冰被认为是地球系统的基本组成部分，这在大规模的环境讨论和对未来气候条件的预测中是不可忽视的。最近，来自高纬度地区关于带洞、冰盖坍塌和气温上升影响的令人不安的头条新闻似乎表明，快速的气候变化正在发生。例如，北冰洋冰似乎不可避免地会缩小，这将对当地人类社区的土著生活方式构成威胁，包括北极熊在内的北极鸟类和哺乳动物将面临艰难时期，以及一条无冰的西北航道(Smith等人，2002年；克尔，2002年)。在南极洲，海冰覆盖范围和分布的显著变化归因于全球气候变暖。这些变化与磷虾明显的生态变化密切相关。
Following the initial freezing of sea water, sea ice is profoundly modified by theinteraction of physical, biological and chemical processes to form an extremelyheterogeneous semi-solid matrix. Ocean, atmospheric and continental inputs all serve toinfluence the formation, consolidation and subsequent melt when the ice returns to water.Probably the most important property of sea ice is that, despite it being solid, it is lessdense than seawater and therefore floats.During the course of a year, tremendous aerial expanses of seawater in the Arctic,the Southern Ocean, but also in the Baltic and other Seas such as the Caspian andOkhotsk undergo the cycle of freezing and melting. In winter, sea ice covers an area of upto 7% of the earth’s surface, and as such is clearly one of the largest biomes on Earth(Comiso, Chapter 4).With the exception of the Inuit, who over several thousand years adapted to a lifeclosely associated to Arctic sea ice, until the turn of the last century sea ice was simply ahostile environment and obstruction to the navigation of sea routes and the hunting ofbirds and mammals (Fogg, 1992; Weeks, 1998). It is only in the past 200 years, andmostly in the past 100 years, that adventurous expeditions visited the Polar Oceans andour understanding of the significance of sea ice in a global context, begin to develop.Today we know that the annual cycle of sea ice formation and degradation notonly plays a pivotal role in governing the world’s climate, but also influence processes inthe oceans down to the abyss. The life cycles of marine plants and animals ranging frommicro-organisms to whales and even man are also influenced by the large scale cycles ofice formation. Sea ice is recognised as a fundamental component of system Earth, whichcannot be ignored in the large scale environmental discussions and the predictions offuture climate conditions.Recently, disturbing headlines from the high latitudes regarding the effects ofozone holes, collapsing ice sheets and rising temperatures seem to indicate that rapidclimate change is underway. The seeming inevitability of shrinking ice on the ArcticOcean for instance would infer a threat to indigenous way of life of local humancommunities, hard times ahead for Arctic birds and mammals including the polar bears,and an ice-free Nothwest passage (Smith et al., 2002; Kerr, 2002). In the Antarcticsignificant changes in the extent and distribution of sea ice cover are attributed to globalclimate warming. These changes are closely related to obvious ecological changes in krill