Ocean Circulation & Climate Change

Continuation of Current Patterns of Change in Arctic and North
Atlantic Oceans Could Alter Ocean Circulation on Global Scale With
Impact on Climate and Biosphere

8 November 2008

In a November special issue of the journal Ecology, a group of scientists report
that if current patterns of change in the Arctic and North Atlantic
Oceans continue, alterations of ocean circulation could occur on a
global scale, with potentially dramatic implications for the world’s
climate and biosphere.

Charles Greene of Cornell University and colleagues reconstructed
the patterns of climate change in the Arctic from the Paleocene epoch
to the present. Over these 65 million years, the Earth has undergone
several major warming and cooling episodes, which were largely
mitigated by the expansion and contraction of sea ice in the Arctic.

Resources

• Charles H. Greene, Andrew J. Pershing, Thomas M. Cronin,
  Nicole Ceci (2008) Arctic Climate Change and its Impacts on the Ecology
  of the North Atlantic. Ecology: Vol. 89, No. sp11, pp. S24-S38 doi: 10.1890/07-0550.1

Read full article here.