Nature:
The motion of vast tracts of water through the oceans is the
focus of a study published recently in
Nature
Geoscience. According to researchers, over the past 50
years, ocean circulation closer to the equator has grown weaker
and the water warmer and more saline, while circulation closer
to the poles has grown stronger and the water cooler and less
saline. It used to be thought that ocean waters moved smoothly
like a conveyor belt, but these changes affect both seawater
density and, thus, the ocean’s dynamics. "The more we
look, the more complicated the ocean is," says Susan Lozier, an
oceanographer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and
lead author of the study. Such studies could help make
climate-change models more precise.
