Southern Ocean in-situ temperature trends over 25 years emerge from interannual variability

Matthis Auger (), Rosemary Morrow, Elodie Kestenare, Jean-Baptiste Sallée and Rebecca Cowley
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Matthis Auger: Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LOCEAN
Rosemary Morrow: LEGOS, CNRS/IRD/CNES/University of Toulouse III
Elodie Kestenare: LEGOS, CNRS/IRD/CNES/University of Toulouse III
Jean-Baptiste Sallée: Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LOCEAN
Rebecca Cowley: CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Despite playing a major role in global ocean heat storage, the Southern Ocean remains the most sparsely measured region of the global ocean. Here, a unique 25-year temperature time-series of the upper 800 m, repeated several times a year across the Southern Ocean, allows us to document the long-term change within water-masses and how it compares to the interannual variability. Three regions stand out as having strong trends that dominate over interannual variability: warming of the subantarctic waters (0.29 ± 0.09 °C per decade); cooling of the near-surface subpolar waters (−0.07 ± 0.04 °C per decade); and warming of the subsurface subpolar deep waters (0.04 ± 0.01 °C per decade). Although this subsurface warming of subpolar deep waters is small, it is the most robust long-term trend of our section, being in a region with weak interannual variability. This robust warming is associated with a large shoaling of the maximum temperature core in the subpolar deep water (39 ± 09 m per decade), which has been significantly underestimated by a factor of 3 to 10 in past studies. We find temperature changes of comparable magnitude to those reported in Amundsen–Bellingshausen Seas, which calls for a reconsideration of current ocean changes with important consequences for our understanding of future Antarctic ice-sheet mass loss.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20781-1

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