NEW YORK — New research suggests that West Antarctica has warmed much more than scientists have thought over the last half-century, an ominous finding given that the huge ice sheet there may be vulnerable to an eventual collapse, with potentially drastic effects on sea level.

A paper released Sunday by the journal Nature Geoscience found that the temperature at a research station in the middle of West Antarctica has warmed by 4.4 degrees since 1958. That is roughly twice as much as scientists thought and three times the overall rate of global warming, making central West Antarctica one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth.