The results highlight a new connection between eddy activity, Arctic ice, and ocean stratification, that can now be factored into climate models to produce more accurate predictions of Arctic evolution with climate change.  @aasjournal, Copyright © 2021 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. Antarctica in a Changing Climate . offers eligible public information officers paid access to a reliable news release distribution service. This study used a carefully evaluated ocean temperature and salinity data (IAP products) which overcomes previous systematic biases associated with sampling. “The take-home point, here, is that once again we are learning that the uncertainties are not breaking in our favor,” he said. Source: NOAA MESA Project. New research published in Nature Climate Change on Monday shows that oceans are stratifying faster than previous research indicated. In other words, the new study indicates that "humans have made the oceans more stable, and the result will be more extreme weather and the acceleration of climate change," as study co-author John Abraham wrote Monday for The Guardian. As human-caused greenhouse warming has fundamentally altered oceanic temperature and salinity fields, impacts to stratification are expected but the details have been difficult to discern until now. The results highlight a new connection between eddy activity, Arctic ice, and ocean stratification, that can now be factored into climate models to … The increase of ocean stratification feedbacks to climate change. The new data shows that ocean has become more stratified by 5.3% since 1960 for the upper 2000m. A warming ocean has huge implications for climate change, some of which we’ve already discussed.Another of these implications is ocean stratification, or the increased layering of our oceans due to differences in temperature. Warmer waters also "absorb less atmospheric carbon dioxide" and "hold less dissolved oxygen." ... ocean stratification. Near the surface of the ocean, global warming is creating increasingly distinct layers of warm water that stifle seawater circulations critical for regulating climate and sustaining marine life. At the front line of climate change, the ocean, the coastlines and coastal communities are being disproportionately impacted by increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities. Therefore, the stratification is a central element of Earth's climate system, and understanding its changes with global warming has great scientific, societal and ecological consequences. In a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the international team of climate scientists said they found that stratification globally had … Previous quantification of stratification change has been limited to a simple index and has neglected the spatial complexity of ocean density change. Equally important is how the layering affects the amount of carbon dioxide going into the ocean. The heat in the top 300 to 400 feet of the ocean is what fuels tropical storms. jennylin@mail.iap.ac.cn Water rolls up onto a North Carolina beach as Hurricane Florence approaches in this 2018 photo. Recall from the ‘Ocean Layers & Mixing’ page that our oceans are already a bit stratified due to differences in temperature and salinity. Nutrient supply to the ocean-surface layer has generally decreased in the North Pacific Ocean, consistent with increasing upper-ocean stratification (medium confidence). Any slowing documented to date cannot be directly tied to anthropogenic forcing primarily due to lack of adequate observational data and An oceanic feature called upper ocean stratification causes upper ocean layers to warm faster than deeper ones. The research suggests that some of the worst-case global warming scenarios outlined in major international climate reports can’t be ruled out, he said. Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO 2 sink due to recent climate change. But the growing stratification could suppress those cycles, “leaving the Pacific in a permanent El Niño state,” Mann added. That’s problematic for sea life that, like us, needs oxygen. The ocean has become significantly more stratified over the last half century as the climate has warmed, inhibiting the ability for heat, oxygen, and carbon dioxide from the surface to be transported deeper into the ocean, according to a new study. ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. The main basis for estimating the stratification change is the sparse distribution of ocean observations both horizontally and vertically. The areas characterized by the largest stratification changes include the Arctic, the tropics, the North Atlantic, and the northeast Pacific. This stable stratified configuration acts as a barrier to water mixing that impacts the efficiency of vertical exchanges of heat, carbon, oxygen and other constituents. Climate change is affecting the chemistry of seawater. As temperatures increase due to climate change, the ocean water becomes more stratified. Previous calculations measuring the change over time were not as accurate because they didn’t include as much data, said co-author, The observed increase in ocean stratification is “yet another climate science prediction come true,” said climate scientist, If the current slows, more hot water could build up along the East Coast of the United States, leading to more coastal heat waves and rising sea levels. The authors of this study include Guancheng Li, Lijing Cheng, Jiang Zhu of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (IAP, CAS) and the CAS Center for Ocean Mega Science; Kevin E. Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Michael E. Mann, with the Department of Meteorology & Atmospheric Science at The Pennsylvania State University; John Abraham, of the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering. 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