Iceberg calving accounts for half of the mass discharge from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which has increased dramatically over the last two decades. Through their displacement and progressive melt, icebergs can impact both the regional and large-scale ocean circulation and marine ecosystems by affecting their stratification and nutrient and carbon cycling. Freshwater input due to iceberg melt has the potential to impact regional sea ice distribution and the global overturning circulation. Notwithstanding their importance, our understanding of where and how icebergs melt is limited and their representation in ocean and climate models is oversimplistic, in part because they are informed by only a handful of observations. As a result, model-based predictions of iceberg melt rates, of the fate of the meltwater, and of its impact on the ocean are highly uncertain. New observational, modeling, and experimental studies are needed to improve our understanding of iceberg melting and hence, the forecasting power of climate models.

中文翻译：

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 冰山融化


冰山崩解占格陵兰岛和南极冰盖质量排放量的一半，而在过去二十年中，冰山崩解量急剧增加。冰山的位移和逐渐融化，可以通过影响其分层以及营养物质和碳循环来影响区域和大规模的海洋环流和海洋生态系统。冰山融化导致的淡水输入有可能影响区域海冰分布和全球翻转环流。尽管冰山很重要，但我们对冰山融化的位置和方式的理解是有限的，它们在海洋和气候模型中的表现过于简单，部分原因是它们仅来自少数观测数据。因此，基于模型的冰山融化速度、融水的命运及其对海洋的影响的预测是高度不确定的。需要新的观测、建模和实验研究来提高我们对冰山融化的理解，从而提高气候模型的预测能力。