Frontiers in Marine Science: Atlantic currents have slowed down
Scientists at the University of Maryland in the US have recorded a significant slowdown in global currents, including the Gulf Stream, due to climate change. Research results published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Experts analyzed data on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a system of ocean currents that transfer heat from the equator north. The system remained stable from 1955 to 1994, but the AMOC began to move more slowly in the mid-1990s due to continued warming of the ocean surface and accompanying changes in upper ocean salinity.
If the AMOC slows, heat exchange will decrease, causing hot areas to become even hotter and cold areas to become colder, scientists say. This could lead to increased global climate change, rising sea levels, impacts on marine ecosystems and other climate impacts.
Although the entire North Atlantic is systematically warming, different subregions exhibit different decadal variability. For example, although temperatures gradually increased from 1955 to 2017, in the more northern Atlantic Ocean they fell from 1955 to 1994 and then increased from 1995 to 2017. Similar patterns are also noticeable in salinity and density.
This change in climate patterns indicates that it is not possible to predict from the current situation whether the AMOC slowdown will persist, accelerate, or decrease in the next decade. However, the study's authors suggest that scenarios involving a slowdown or collapse of the AMOC cannot be dismissed.
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