Study: Global Warming Changing Ocean Salinity

[hatrack]

"Startling signs that global warming is changing patterns of rain, snow and ocean currents that drive the climate system were reported Wednesday by scientists monitoring the ocean's saltiness.

According to oceanographer Ruth Curry, sea surface waters in tropical regions have become dramatically saltier over the past 50 years, while surface waters at high latitudes, in Arctic regions, have become much fresher. These changes in salinity seem to have accelerated in the 1990s.

'This is the signature of increasing evaporation and precipitation' occurring because of warming, Curry said, 'and a sign of melting ice at the poles. These are consequences of global warming, either natural, human-caused or, more likely, both.' These changes in saltiness reflect increased seawater evaporation in the warm tropical regions, leaving the surface water saltier. The increased evaporation leads to increased rainfall and snowfall -- plus more ice melting -- dumping fresher water at the poles.

Curry, a research scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, published the result with two colleagues Wednesday in the journal Nature. Her co-workers were Bob Dickson of the Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture in Lowestoft, England and Igor Yashayaev, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia. Their data came from more than 40 years of salinity measurements taken in the Atlantic, between Iceland in the north and the tip of South America."

EDIT

Link To Newsday

[TexasPatriot]

1. Thermohaline circulation

Broecker proposed decades ago that a change in global climate might trigger an abrupt and major shift in the global ocean circulation system. At present, a constant flow of warm water northeast along the U.S. East Coast, known as the Gulf Stream, delivers welcome warmth to northern Europe. If that flow of warmth ceases or slows too much, Europe could be plunged into deep freeze.

If you dont know about the Younger Dryas event, you should read about it.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/991202/991202-11.html

[seasat]

9. I took a global carbon cycles course in the early 90's.

I read Wally Broeker's papers during the class and he is turning out to be very prophetic. Recently (I think Hatrack also posted these articles?) there are studies that indicate the global thermohaline circulation is slowing and global oceanic primary production is declining. It could be that some of those sudden environmental triggers is going to come into effect and change could proceed even more rapidly. Not to sound like a survivalist, but my goal is to finish my PhD and purchase a plot of land out in the country in the S US. If these changes do rapidly occur, it'll be better to have greater self sufficiency.

[hatrack]

2. National Science Foundation - net evaporation rates up 5-10% last 40 years

Arlington, Va.—"Tropical ocean waters have become dramatically saltier over the past 40 years, while oceans closer to Earth’s poles have become fresher, scientists report in the December 18th issue of the journal Nature. These large-scale, relatively rapid oceanic changes suggest that recent climate changes, including global warming, may be altering the fundamental planetary system that regulates evaporation and precipitation and cycles fresh water around the globe.

EDIT

'This study is important because it provides direct evidence that the global water cycle is intensifying,' said Elise Ralph, associate director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) physical oceanography program, which funded the research. 'This is consistent with global warming hypotheses that suggest ocean evaporation will increase as Earth's temperature does. These issues are particularly important as pressure on freshwater resources has become critical in many areas around the world.'

EDIT

This trend appears to have accelerated since 1990—when 10 of the warmest years since records began in 1861 have occurred. The scientists estimated that net evaporation rates over the tropical Atlantic have increased by five percent to ten percent over the past four decades.

These results indicate that fresh water has been lost from the low latitudes and added at high latitudes, at a pace exceeding the ocean circulation's ability to compensate, say the scientists. Taken together with other recent studies revealing parallel salinity changes in the Mediterranean, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, a growing body of evidence suggests that the global hydrologic cycle has revved up in recent decades."

EDIT

http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr03145.htm

[Bandit]

3. Serious stuff and America don't give a rat's patooti

At least the America that is proud of our fearless leader.

[hatrack]

7. Too busy hanging breathlessly on Jacko coverage, I guess

Either that, or they're too busy watching the Paula Zahn "retrospective" on the Great Clinton Cock-Hunt, which CNN presented (apparently with a straight face) as "news".

[gasperc]

4. oh fuck

you just know that this is bad
I'm just putting myself at ease after watching Oprah in Africa last night. Obviously, the GOP is in denial or at least when things come completely unglued then we'll deal with it.
Just imagine how much good a billion dollars of the $87billion we're sinking into Iraq would do in Africa to help fight AIDS


I was watching Minority Report last night and in my head comparing Spielberg's vision of the future in AI and then this movie. I lean alot closer to his AI vision, MR besides the horrific crime rate, makes the future looks like a good balance between technology and the environment. Well, ok, genetics gone wild.

[Heddi]

5. Oh who cares about fish?

THey don't pay taxes, they don't contribute to the economy---they're lazy--just swimmin' and fuckin' and expecing the US goverment to do something about their "salty" habitat.

Maybe these "fish" woudln't have it so bad if they'd just stop making babies BY THE MILLIONS, get a job, and stop expecting hard working, tax paying, War-On-Terror supportin' americans to bail them out of every little hole they find themselves in!

When was the last time you heard a Fish Leader stand up and denounce the rash numbers of illegitimate Baby Fish that are born every year? I don't see THEM doing anything to stop this ungodly behaviour.

Do fish even BELIEVE in God? What about Education?

I've even seen some SHOWS where the father fish (or *is* he REALLY the father) will actually EAT THE BABIES once they're out of the egg-casing!

Then you have the fish that PURPOSELLY SWIM AWAY from nets and hooks---not allowing themselves to be caught and killed and eaten---NOT the American way AT ALL.

Screw these fish. Once they start doing something for themselves, instead of expecting Hard Working, Flag Waving, SUV Driving Americans to bail them out, then perhaps we can get somewhere in this conversation.

</sarcasm>

[girlphoenix]

8. Of COURSE fish believe in God!!

I see them on the backs of those SUVs with little crosses in their eyes all the time! Holy fish sticks, Batman!

-girlphoenix

[newyawker99]

16. Hi girlphoenix!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Dogmudgeon]

6. My bi-weekly comment on the return of the Ice Age

I post about this roughly twice a month. There really is very little interest in this topic right now, in spite of (and maybe because of) concern over Global Warming. A return to ice age conditions is counter-intuitive, and brings out the Ironickal Skeptick in many people -- "First it's Global Warming, now it's an Ice Age! You just can't trust them durned perfessers!"

My postings usually get about four hits. Two weeks ago, I posted nearly identical pieces at the same time. One of them was titled something like "Climate change could bring on little Ice Age", and the other one was "Millions of cats face death by freezing." You can guess which got two hits, and which got eight.

Yes, I'm a wise-ass, but a wise-ass informed by the Younger-Dry-ass. (Get it, that's a hybrid DU and Climatology joke.) But such a climate change would result in an enormous set of disasters, including famines, mass migrations of Europeans, Canadians, and people from Northern Asia, increased desertification, greatly increased hurricane and tornado development, and a much greater demand on our ever-more-expensive fossil fuel supplies.

This has been one of my serious interests since the early studies of the THC (Thermohaline Circulation) were published in the late 1970s. I have compiled a list of reliable indicators of a return of an "interstadial" (ice-age) climatic regime, and most of the indicators are now active, with very few counter-indicators arguing against the ice.

Naturally, many DUers assume I fall into the right-wing camp on this issue, since I am convinced this is a primarily natural phenomenon. But I don't -- in fact, human involvement in the ecosphere has probably accelerated the change by 2000-5000 years. The fact that human beings change the weather was demonstrated by the Right itself in the week following 9/11, when pResident Bush grounded all aircraft, and the meteorological community remarked on the significant changes in the weather around the world.

My "prediction", as it currently stands, is that we will enter the early stages of a Younger-Dryas type of an era well within 50 years; and that the odds are better than 50/50 that this will deepen into a full glacial period within 1000 years. By the way, this is not a psychic prediction, but a prediction I make based on the evidence of past ice ages, "little" and otherwise. Since the newer, colder era will probably start during the cold phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the next five to seven years could mark the start of this era, when the cold phase of the PDO should be at its maximum.

(So why don't the "Professional" climatologists make such predictions? Well, most PhDs with teaching positions or politically-sensitive posts in the USGS have families, i.e., children to feed, mortgages to pay, and reputations to protect from "hard-headed thinkers" like Bill O'Reilly and John Stossel. Better that a libbrul crank like Yours Truly make an ass of himself than someone who has taken on the un-sexy work of actually developing the evidence I have seen fit to abuse.)

An abrupt return to a Y-D climate around 2025, when petroleum is expected to be much more expensive, and natural gas just about unobtainable, would be even more catastrophic. At least if the "cold snap" hits over the next few years, we will have enough energy capacity to handle it, though we may have to lay aside our jolly little jihad against Islam for the time being.

If the ice comes back down around 2045 without well-designed energy and disaster management policies in place, to paraphrase that hearalded American folk philosopher Laurence Tereaux, "I pity the fools."

There is currently enough lay scientific interest in climate issues that if, and when, the North Atlantic THC disappears, it will become immediate front-page news, and it will also probably trigger and economic panic due to the prospect of Europe becoming a tundra immediately and buried under a thousand feet of ice within a few centuries. The movie The Day After Tomorrow, an adaptation of Art Bell and Whitley Strieber's The Coming Global Superstorm will certainly heighten public interest in the topic, especially if this winter turns out to be snowier than usual (as it already has been for most of the country).

Sorry to disappoint my one or two "fans" that this posting has mainly been a rambling rant. I really ought to work up a piece for the DU Articles page. Maybe Kitty Cats Face Immanent Extinction.

:)

--bkl
Colder but Wiser.

ps- Yes, Mr. T's name really is Laurence Tereaux, at least as reported by TV Guide when The A-Team was popular -- and provided I am not going into premature senility.

[reprobate]

11. You speak with straight tongue, BKL

Could you please post that list of indicators? I've been interested in this phenomena since I first heard of it last year.

I've seen predictions that the change in the atlantic current may well not be gradual, but will posssibly reach a threshold point and then do a 'snap' and turn off the current. Your opinion?

[Tigerlily]

14. You have a new fan, BKL.

Global Warming is such a depressing topic, but you made me laugh.


Go with "Kitty Kats face Extinction" in the subject line and you'll get a gazillion hits. :)

[tom_paine]

10. And above all our petty struggles against petty tyrants like the Busheviks

the Earth stands in the background with ALL the trump cards.

And yes, the Age of Totalitarianism ushered in by the Bushevik seizure of the Old American Republic may well be the point of no return for the human species.

[ozone_man]

12. Precipitation cycle seems a bit strange lately.

For instance, in the last couple weeks we got two 18"-19" snow storms in Vermont, and it's not even Christmas. The first (Dec. 7) was the earliest storm of that size since 1900. The second (Dec. 14), even bigger. Usually, we don't see snow like this until at least January.

This year, drought/rain/drought/rain, very strange. Just my perception.

[harper]

13. I read a long article about this several years ago in Atlantic Monthly

It scared the crap out of me. So now I keep my eyes open for little tidbits in the news that involve the saline content of the arctic seas. I saw a little piece in the paper last week that mentioned that the melting artic ice caps were making the arctic ocean more dilute. I think its starting.

Thanks for the post...one more thing to add to my collection of doom.

[yellowcanine]

15. Could also change pattern of ocean currents

Global warming and changes in salinity could change patterns in ocean currents, which play a major role in climate. Not only that, the changes could take place in a rapid catastrophic fashion. More reason why we can't afford to dither on this issue while waiting for "more research" to be done.