Two centuries of limited variability in subtropical North Atlantic thermocline ventilation

Nathalie F. Goodkin (), Ellen R. M. Druffel, Konrad A. Hughen and Scott C. Doney
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Nathalie F. Goodkin: University of Hong Kong
Ellen R. M. Druffel: University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA.
Konrad A. Hughen: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA.
Scott C. Doney: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA.

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Ventilation and mixing of oceanic gyres is important to ocean-atmosphere heat and gas transfer, and to mid-latitude nutrient supply. The rates of mode water formation are believed to impact climate and carbon exchange between the surface and mid-depth water over decadal periods. Here, a record of 14C/12C (1780–1940), which is a proxy for vertical ocean mixing, from an annually banded coral from Bermuda, shows limited inter-annual variability and a substantial Suess Effect (the decrease in 14C/12C since 1900). The Sargasso Sea mixing rates between the surface and thermocline varied minimally over the past two centuries, despite changes to mean-hemispheric climate, including the Little Ice Age and variability in the North Atlantic Oscillation. This result indicates that regional formation rates of sub-tropical mode water are stable over decades, and that anthropogenic carbon absorbed by the ocean does not return to the surface at a variable rate.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1811

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