Stabilization of dense Antarctic water supply to the Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation

E. Povl Abrahamsen (), Andrew J. S. Meijers, Kurt L. Polzin, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Brian A. King, Yvonne L. Firing, Jean-Baptiste Sallée, Katy L. Sheen, Arnold L. Gordon, Bruce A. Huber and Michael P. Meredith
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E. Povl Abrahamsen: British Antarctic Survey
Andrew J. S. Meijers: British Antarctic Survey
Kurt L. Polzin: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Alberto C. Naveira Garabato: University of Southampton
Brian A. King: National Oceanography Centre
Yvonne L. Firing: National Oceanography Centre
Jean-Baptiste Sallée: LOCEAN
Katy L. Sheen: University of Exeter
Arnold L. Gordon: Columbia University
Bruce A. Huber: Columbia University
Michael P. Meredith: British Antarctic Survey

Nature Climate Change, 2019, vol. 9, issue 10, 742-746

Abstract: Abstract The lower limb of the Atlantic overturning circulation is resupplied by the sinking of dense Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) that forms via intense air–sea–ice interactions next to Antarctica, especially in the Weddell Sea1. In the last three decades, AABW has warmed, freshened and declined in volume across the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere2–7, suggesting an ongoing major reorganization of oceanic overturning8,9. However, the future contributions of AABW to the Atlantic overturning circulation are unclear. Here, using observations of AABW in the Scotia Sea, the most direct pathway from the Weddell Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, we show a recent cessation in the decline of the AABW supply to the Atlantic overturning circulation. The strongest decline was observed in the volume of the densest layers in the AABW throughflow from the early 1990s to 2014; since then, it has stabilized and partially recovered. We link these changes to variability in the densest classes of abyssal waters upstream. Our findings indicate that the previously observed decline in the supply of dense water to the Atlantic Ocean abyss may be stabilizing or reversing and thus call for a reassessment of Antarctic influences on overturning circulation, sea level, planetary-scale heat distribution and global climate2,3,8.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-019-0561-2

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