Woods Hole - Arctic Fresh Water Inflow - 20,000 Extra KM3 1965 - 1995

[hatrack]

Fish accustomed to the salty water of the Arctic may have to think about finding a new home.

As a result of global warming, the Arctic Ocean has been getting less salty over the past half century and the trend looks set to continue. The culprits are a massive increase in rainfall over the Arctic and faster melting of sea ice and glaciers.

Bruce Peterson of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and his team gathered decades' worth of meteorological, river, sea-ice and glacier data from the Arctic region and used it to calculate the increase in fresh water input into the ocean. They calculated that increased rainfall and river outflow between 1965 and 1995 dumped an extra 20,000 cubic kilometres of freshwater into the ocean - equivalent to 40 years' flow from the Mississippi river. Melting sea ice contributed a further 15,000 km3 and glaciers 2000 km3. This is consistent with the observed decrease in the salinity of the Arctic Ocean over the same period.

"Our results show that there has been a global redistribution of fresh water, which is probably related to global warming," Peterson says.

EDIT

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125675.400-arctic-ocean-continues-to-freshen-up.html

[bigbrother05]

1. Water is a finite resource

The increase in the amount of fresh water moving to the Arctic is probably reflected by the worsening drought cycles in the temperate regions.

Global Warming is really Golbal Climate Change. The warming is probably easier to model, the second and third level effects are what will confound us all.