A rapid shift under way in the Barents Sea could spread to other Arctic regions, scientists attending a conference in Norway have warned. The Barents Sea is said to be at a “tipping point”, BBC News explains, changing from an Arctic climate to an Atlantic climate as the water warms. The Arctic Ocean has a surface layer of freshwater “which acts as a cap” on a layer of warmer, saltier water below. “But now in the Barents Sea there’s not enough freshwater-rich sea ice flowing from the high Arctic to maintain the freshwater cap,” BBC News reports.

A new study warns that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at current rates, Earth’s vegetation may not be able to keep up. “Once plants and soil hit the maximum carbon uptake they can handle, warming could rapidly accelerate”, MailOnline writes. The study from Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science investigates how changes in soil moisture affect its capability to act as a “carbon sink”. Currently, “plants and soil around the world absorb roughly a quarter of the greenhouse gases that humans release”, the New York Times explains. But “when the soil is dry, plants are stressed and can’t absorb as much CO2 to perform photosynthesis”. And with warmer conditions microorganisms in the soil become more productive and “release more CO2”. The researchers found that although “plants and soil could absorb more CO2 during the wetter years, it did not make up for their reduced ability to absorb CO2 in the years when soil was dry”. Carbon Brief has also covered the study.

Scientists have succeeded in cutting a 2km hole through the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to its base using a hot-water drill, BBC News reports. The team then collected sediment from the bottom of the hole and “deployed a series of instruments”. The researchers from the British Antarctic Survey hope that the data collected can help them determine how fast Antarctica might lose its ice in a warming world. Dr Andy Smith, who led the team, commented: “There are gaps in our knowledge of what’s happening in West Antarctica and by studying the area where the ice sits on soft sediment, we can understand better how this region may change in the future and contribute to global sea-level rise.”

2019 will see the retirement of nearly 6GW of coal power in the US, while 49GW of new power generation capacity will be added to the grid, according to the latest figures from S&P Global Market Intelligence, which is highlighted by CleanTechnica. In a related story, E&E News reports that a group of US utilities and other power producers say they may have to shut down their coal-fired power plants if a court rolls back a Trump administration extension to the deadline for closing some coal ash dumps. Their filing to the US Court of Appeals follows a legal challenge brought by environmental groups to the administration’s changes last July to the Obama-era regulations governing coal ash disposal, the article explains.

In other coal news, the Australian Financial Review reports that Jeremy Grantham, the “legendary British hedge fund manager” who founded GMO, has said that thermal coal is “dead meat”. Bloomberg investigates how a “loophole” lets Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund boost its coal exposure. Meanwhile, Forbes says that China’s “coal reliance is not falling nearly as fast as some like to claim”. Chinese coal demand “hasn’t been falling in the absolute sense”, the piece argues, continuing: “China approved nearly $6.7bn worth of new coal mining projects in 2018, and production increased 5.2% to 3.55bn tonnes”.