Ocean Circulation Collapse Sparks Concerns

New research suggests that the collapse of ocean circulation, previously thought to occur in the North Atlantic, is more likely to happen in the Southern Ocean due to melting ice in Antarctica. The circulation system, which moderates global warming, is driven by the descent of cold, salty water to the ocean floor in just two places: in the far North Atlantic near Greenland and in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. The slowing of ocean circulation will “profoundly alter the ocean overturning of heat, fresh water, oxygen, carbon, and nutrients, with impacts felt throughout the global ocean for centuries to come,” concludes lead author Qian Li, an oceanographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.