We all know about how climate change is a threat to icebergs - as dramatic footage shows the effects as they melt.
According to research published at Nature Geosciences - the icebergs may be fighting back.
How? Well as icebergs form, they scrape up nutrients and various bits and pieces from the land.
So when the berg melts, they release these nutrients at sea - causing massive blooms in ocean life, blooms which take carbon dioxide out of the air.
The researchers confirmed that this was happening by looking at 175 satellite images of open ocean colour before and after the passage of 17 giant icebergs between 2003 and 2013.
They noticed that the blooms are at least 4-10 times bigger than the icebergs, and can persist for a month after the iceberg sinks.
"Assuming that carbon export increases by a factor of 5–10 over the area of influence, we estimate that up to a fifth of the Southern Ocean’s downward carbon flux originates with giant iceberg fertilization. We suggest that, if giant iceberg calving increases this century as expected, this negative feedback on the carbon cycle may become more important," the researchers wrote.
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