IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-14474-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic

Author

Listed:
  • N. Penny Holliday

    (National Oceanography Centre)

  • Manfred Bersch

    (University of Hamburg)

  • Barbara Berx

    (Marine Scotland Science)

  • Léon Chafik

    (Stockholm University)

  • Stuart Cunningham

    (Scottish Association for Marine Science)

  • Cristian Florindo-López

    (National Oceanography Centre)

  • Hjálmar Hátún

    (Faroe Marine Research Institute)

  • William Johns

    (University of Miami)

  • Simon A. Josey

    (National Oceanography Centre)

  • Karin Margretha H. Larsen

    (Faroe Marine Research Institute)

  • Sandrine Mulet

    (CLS)

  • Marilena Oltmanns

    (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel)

  • Gilles Reverdin

    (Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IRD/MNHN (LOCEAN))

  • Tom Rossby

    (University of Rhode Island)

  • Virginie Thierry

    (Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale)

  • Hedinn Valdimarsson

    (Marine and Freshwater Research Institute)

  • Igor Yashayaev

    (Bedford Institute of Oceanography)

Abstract

The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slowdown. We show that the eastern subpolar North Atlantic underwent extreme freshening during 2012 to 2016, with a magnitude never seen before in 120 years of measurements. The cause was unusual winter wind patterns driving major changes in ocean circulation, including slowing of the North Atlantic Current and diversion of Arctic freshwater from the western boundary into the eastern basins. We find that wind-driven routing of Arctic-origin freshwater intimately links conditions on the North West Atlantic shelf and slope region with the eastern subpolar basins. This reveals the importance of atmospheric forcing of intra-basin circulation in determining the salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic.

Suggested Citation

  • N. Penny Holliday & Manfred Bersch & Barbara Berx & Léon Chafik & Stuart Cunningham & Cristian Florindo-López & Hjálmar Hátún & William Johns & Simon A. Josey & Karin Margretha H. Larsen & Sandrine Mu, 2020. "Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14474-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14474-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mathilde Jutras & Carolina O. Dufour & Alfonso Mucci & Lauryn C. Talbot, 2023. "Large-scale control of the retroflection of the Labrador Current," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14474-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.