The distribution of salt by ocean currents plays a crucial role in regulating the global climate. This is what researchers from Dalhousie University in Canada, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, have found in a new study published in Science Advances.
They studied natural climate anomalies, including the so-called Little Ice Age. This cold period from the 15th to the mid-19th century led to poor harvests, famine and disease in Europe. Although the Little Ice Age is one of the most studied periods in recent history, the underlying climatic mechanisms remain controversial.
“Looking at recent, natural climate anomalies helps to understand the processes and mechanisms that human-induced global warming may trigger,” says Dr. Anastasia Zhuravleva, lead author of the study. She was a Ph.D. student at GEOMAR and received the Annette Barthelt Prize for her dissertation in 2019. She then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at GEOMAR and Dalhousie University, where the study was completed.
“Researchers often consider an increase in sea ice extent and desalination in the subpolar North Atlantic as possible triggers for past cold periods, but processes in the tropical Atlantic appear to be equally important,” says Dr. Zhuravleva.
“In fact, in contrast to the northern and mid-latitudes, there is little information on these recent climate events from the subtropical-tropical Atlantic and their impact on regions in the Northern Hemisphere,” adds Dr. Henning Bauch, paleoclimatologist at AWI and GEOMAR, co-initiator and co-author of the study. “This is where our research comes in.”
2023-11-03 19:41:02
Original from phys.org rnrn
