New research found that melting icecaps are slowing global deep ocean currents, a trend that will have major impacts on marine life and global weather patterns.
This is occurring because dense meltwater is sinking to the bottom of the ocean, causing the deep ocean current to slow.
Study author Matt England, of the University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Centre, said changes in deep ocean current circulations that would normally take millennia are occurring in "just a few decades."
- He said his team's findings provide evidence for "the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass."
- Their analysis suggests that deep ocean currents could slow by as much as 40% in 30 years.
- The study, which was published in Nature, argues that the slowdown could "profoundly alter the ocean overturning of heat, fresh water, oxygen, carbon, and nutrients, with impacts felt throughout the global ocean for centuries to come."
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- Oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf said that recent U.N. climate reports suffered from a "major shortcoming" because they fail to account for the effects of meltwater on the deep ocean.
