An international team led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego used computer model simulations to find that climate change is altering the mechanics of surface ocean circulations, making them become faster and thinner.
An international team led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego used computer model simulations to find that climate change is altering the mechanics of surface ocean circulations, making them become faster and thinner.
These changes can have a ripple effect in the ocean, affecting the transport of the nutrients organisms need as well as that of microorganisms themselves. Swifter currents may also affect the processes by which the ocean removes carbon and heat from the atmosphere and protects the planet from excessive atmospheric warming.
“We were surprised to see that surface currents speed up in more than three-fourths of the world’s oceans when we heated the ocean surface,” said study lead author Qihua Peng, who recently joined Scripps Oceanography as a postdoctoral researcher.
The study, published April 20 in the journal Science Advances, sheds light on an underappreciated force behind the speed of global ocean currents. It helps resolve a debate on whether currents are accelerating as a result of global warming.
Read more at: University of California - San Diego
Ocean currents off the west coasts of North and Central America (Photo Credit: NASA)
