Antarctica and its wildlife are as vulnerable to climate change as the ‘small islands’ that are the focus of this year’s World Environment Day.
In the past few weeks there have been numerous media reports and scientific papers about the irreversible collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet. While this melting could bring about large changes to small islands and other parts of the world in the future, there are also many subtle changes occurring in Antarctica right now.
After decades of research Australian scientists are now reporting patterns of change in the cryosphere, amongst wildlife and in polar marine ecosystems. The following stories provide an insight into some of the changes our scientists are reporting and predicting.