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Fast Antarctic melt slows down the flow of water across the oceans and can be disastrous for global climatethe marine food chain and even the stability of ice
Fast Antarctic melt slows down the flow of water across the oceans and can be disastrous for global climatethe marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves, according to a new study.
“tip circulationThe oceans, driven by the movement of denser water to the seafloor, help transport heat, carbon, oxygen and vital nutrients around the planet.
But flows of deep water from Antarctica could decrease by 40% by 2050.according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s amazing that this is happening. so fastsays Alan Meeks, a paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University and co-author of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates, who was not involved in the study.
As temperatures rise, fresh water from Antarctica melts into the ocean. decrease in salinity and density of surface waters and the reduction of this downward flow towards the bottom of the sea.
Scientists used 35 million computing hours over two years to come up with a series of models and simulations until the middle of the century and found that the deep-water circulation in Antarctica can weaken twice as fast as in the North Atlantic.
“These are huge volumes of water … and these are parts of the ocean that have remained stable for a long time,” Matthew England, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales and co-author of the study, told a press conference.
The roughness of the ocean allows nutrients rise from the bottomand the Southern Ocean supports about three-quarters of the world’s production of phytoplankton, the backbone of the food chain, said study co-author Steve Rintoul.
Photo: Reuters
“If we slow down the sinking near Antarctica, we slow down the whole circulation and so we are also reducing the amount of nutrients coming back to the surface from the deep ocean,” explained Rintoul, a researcher at the Australian Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
The results of the study also suggest that the ocean could not absorb so much carbon dioxide as its upper layers become more stratified, which leaves more CO2 in the atmosphere.
(Reuters)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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