The continent's minimum summer ice cover, which last year dipped below 2 million square kilometres for the first time since satellite monitoring began in 1978, fell further to a new low in February, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.
"In some cases we are getting close to tipping points, which once crossed will lead to irreversible changes with unstoppable consequences for future generations," Naish said. Climate change will "lead to increases in the size and frequency" of heatwaves, ice shelf collapses and declines in sea ice, it said, drawing on recent evidence from scientific studies of the Antarctic ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere.
But from phenomena such as the rapid decline in sea ice, it is "scientifically reasonable" to assume that extreme events are going to intensify as global temperatures rise, said Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter and another co-author.