India, Feb. 17 -- The Antarctic Ice Sheet has multiple tipping points, with some regions potentially having already crossed them.

Because of the interconnectedness of drainage basins, changes in one can trigger cascading effects in others.

With current warming levels, significant ice loss is already underway, posing a substantial risk to global sea levels.

The various parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet have different critical thresholds as tipping points with the drainage basins interacting with each other, according to new research by the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA) published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

When an ice sheet crosses its tipping point...