<text>  Antarcticas icy edge is disappearing in warming ocean waters, with the last decade seeing the rate of ice loss increase dramatically. This is according to a new study that has combined 18-years worth of ice shelf thinning data from three different sets of satellites. The researchers claim that some ice shelves in West Antarctica have lost as much as 18 per cent of their volume in the last ten years. Scroll down for video . Rates of thickness change metresdecade are colour-coded from -25 thinning to 10 thickening. Circles represent percentage of thickness lost red or gained blue in 18 years. The central circle shows the area not surveyed by the satellites . Satellite data from 1994 to . 2012 clearly shows the accelerating decline which could hasten the rise in global sea levels, . scientists say. The findings, published today in the journal Science, . come amid concern among many scientists about the effects of . global climate change on Earths vast, remote polar regions. During the study periods first half, to about 2003, the . overall volume decline around Antarctica was small, with West . Antarctica losses almost balanced out by gains in East . Antarctica. After that, western losses accelerated and gains in . the east ended. There has been more and more ice being lost from . Antarcticas floating ice shelves, said glaciologist Helen . Fricker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the . University of California, San Diego. Ice is added to the ice shelf by glaciers flowing off the continent and by snowfall. Ice is lost when icebergs break off the ice front, and by melting in some regions as warm water flows into the ocean cavity under the ice shelf. Under some ice shelves, cold and fresh meltwater rises to a point where it refreezes onto the ice shelf . The Crosson Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea and the Venable . Ice Shelf in the Bellingshausen Sea, both in West Antarctica, . each shrank about 18 percent during the study period. Climate change could make the food we eat taste worse, according to recent research. A major report on the impact of global warming on food has predicted that the quality of many meats and vegetables is due to decline at temperatures increase. The researchers predict that as heatwaves become more common, meat like chicken and beef will become stringier and tougher. Carrots are likely to lose their flavour and develop a less pleasant texture. Beetroots and onions will become smaller while milk will contain less protein needed to make cheese. A separate study by marine biologists has also shown that shellfish will take on a sour flavour as our oceans acidify. They warn that as the planets oceans grow more acidic, due to rising carbon dioxide levels, many of our favourite seafoods could become less appetising. Shrimp raised in water with a lower pH were 2.6 times more likely to be rated as the worst tasting, while those reared in the less acidic water were 3.4 times more likely to be judged the tastiest. If the loss rates that we observed during the past two . decades are sustained, some ice shelves in the Amundsen and . Bellingshausen seas could disappear within this century, added . Scripps geophysics doctoral candidate Fernando Paolo. The melting of these ice shelves does not directly affect . sea levels because they are already floating. This is just like your glass of gin and tonic. When the ice . cubes melt, the level of liquid in the glass does not rise, Paolo said. But the floating ice shelves provide a restraining force for . land-based ice, and their reduction would increase the flow of . the ice from the land into the ocean, which would increase sea . levels. While it is fair to say that were seeing the ice shelves . responding to climate change, we dont believe there is enough . evidence to directly relate recent ice shelf losses specifically . to changes in global temperature, Fricker said. Oceanographer and co-author Laurie Padman of Earth Space . Research in Corvallis, Oregon said for a few Antarctic ice . shelves, ice loss can be related fairly directly to warming air . temperatures. Much of the increased melting elsewhere is . probably due to more warm water getting under the ice shelves . because of increasing winds near Antarctica, Padman added. Fricker said future studies will concentrate on the causes behind changes in ice shelf volume, including the effects of the atmosphere and ocean. Were looking into connections between El Niño events in the tropical Pacific and changes in the Antarctic ice sheet, said Scripps graduate student Fernando Paolo. Its very far apart but we know that these teleconnections exist. That may ultimately allow us to improve our models for predicting future ice loss. The researchers claim that some ice shelves in West Antarctica have lost as much as 18 per cent of their volume in the last ten years. Antarcticas Brunt Ice Shelf is pictured . 