Antarctic sea ice has plummeted to unprecedented lows, researchers have found. Scientists say this is due to a series of interconnected climate change -driven phenomena. For years, the frozen continent appeared to resist global warming, with its ice levels steadily increasing until 2015. However, this trend abruptly shifted. Researchers at the University of Southampton now believe they have uncovered the reason, pinpointing three distinct events that disrupted the equilibrium of the surrounding Southern Ocean, triggering rapid ice melt. Their findings indicate that human-induced climate change intensified winds, which, from around 2013, began drawing warm, saline water from the deep ocean closer to the surface. Then in 2015, intense wind mixed the deeper heat directly into the surface layer, rapidly melting sea ice, particularly in East Antarctica, the researchers said.…