Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell
Li, England, Hogg, Rintoul and Morrison published modelling work in Nature indicating that meltwater from Antarctica, by freshening the shelf water from which Antarctic Bottom Water forms, drives a substantial slowdown and warming of the abyssal overturning circulation. Observational context points the same way: Weddell Sea Bottom Water volume has fallen by around 30 per cent since 1992, with the densest classes lost fastest.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) · natural phenomenon · Southern Ocean and the abyssal basins of all three oceans · not located
- Weddell Sea · maritime region · Southern Ocean — Atlantic sector
- Southern Ocean · maritime region · Circumpolar, south of roughly 40°S · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Abyssal ocean overturning slowdown and warming driven by Antarctic meltwater
Antarctic meltwater freshening shelf waters is projected to drive a substantial slowdown and warming of the abyssal overturning cell fed by Antarctic Bottom Water. Associated observational figures quoted here — an approximately 30 per cent decline in Weddell Sea Bottom Water volume since 1992 and a greater than 40 per cent decline in shelf sea-ice formation rate — come from adjacent studies summarised alongside it, not from this paper.
Nature · 2023 · Partly verified
Li, Q., England, M. H., Hogg, A. M., Rintoul, S. R. and Morrison, A. K., Nature 615, 841–847 (2023)
Recorded on Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)
- The factory ship Lancing takes a stern slipway south
- The Antarctic blue whale catch reaches its all-time peak
- CCAMLR is agreed at Canberra
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
- Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell
- A physics-based early warning signal is proposed
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A physics-based early warning signal is proposed · 2024-02
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data · 2023
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one · 2023-02
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens · 2021-11
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area · 2016-10
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages · 2013, 2015, 2019
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice · 2004
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted · 1994