Masses of floating ice are so large that they dwarfs your ship, making you question whether your ship still can be spotted among such floating mountains. They are so improbable looking that you simply look in wonder. It seems that nothing that large could be natural-- and then it strikes you that something so large could only be natural.   Now, people realize that as climate change is raising global temperatures, more icebergs are being born. Antarctica creates far more of them than Greenland, the source of bergs in Arctic waters. Antarctica's are also much larger, sometimes reaching the size of small countries. Recent data show the average atmospheric temperature has increased about 4.5degF in the western Antarctic Peninsula since the 1940s, making the region, among the fastest warming on earth. This jump has been shown in the recent breaking of major ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula. As a result, thousands of new icebergs have broken off, from ice shelves into the Southern Ocean at an accelerated rate. Even as more icebergs are being created, scientists are learning that these beauties are far from inactive masses of ice. In fact, they strikingly alter their environments biologically, chemically, and physically, making them islands of life in the open sea. Observers at sea had long remarked that they attract seals, and seabirds, and divers had noticed that fish are more numerous near them than in the surrounding sea. Now scientists are learning just what the attraction is all about. Depending on their size, location, and the season, icebergs can be nurturers or destroyers. During their existence--typically years from breaking off from an Antarctic or Greenlandic glacier to their gradual melting as they float into lower altitudes, they support animals on, around, even inside their splendid ice castle. They fertilize the ocean with nutrients, increasing sea creature production. Grounded bergs can shelter areas of the seafloor, protecting bottom-living creatures from free-floating icebergs. However, large bergs can also trap sea ice, preventing its annual breakup and thus stopping phytoplankton from getting life-giving sunlight, breaking the food chain at its first link. ... Icebergs will continue to astonish and attract visitors to the polar regions with their size and extraordinary beauty. But now these frozen masses are taking on a new dimension of wonder as we uncover their vital role in the environment of polar seas. No longer can we look at icebergs as mere passive beauties. They are active agents of change, each one an icy oasis with a wake of life as it floats on its unstoppable oceanic journey to melting. What can we learn from the passage?
The temperature in Arctic is rising faster than that in Antarctica. The ocean food chain breaks due to the melting of icebergs. Floating icebergs help shelter bottom-living ocean creatures. Global warming has kept bringing icebergs into being.