TY - JOUR
KW - foraminifera
KW - industrial era
KW - North Atlantic
KW - ocean circulation
KW - Subpolar gyre
AU - Peter Spooner
AU - David Thornalley
AU - Delia Oppo
AU - Alan Fox
AU - Svetlana Radionovskaya
AU - Neil Rose
AU - Robbie Mallett
AU - Emma Cooper
AU - Murray Roberts
AB - Abstract The North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) connects tropical and high-latitude waters, playing a leading role in deep-water formation, propagation of Atlantic water into the Arctic, and as habitat for many ecosystems. Instrumental records spanning recent decades document significant decadal variability in SPG circulation, with associated hydrographic and ecological changes. Emerging longer-term records provide circumstantial evidence that the North Atlantic also experienced centennial trends during the 20th century. Here, we use marine sediment records to show that there has been a long-term change in SPG circulation during the industrial era, largely during the 20th century. Moreover, we show that the shift and late 20th century SPG configuration were unprecedented in the last 10,000~years. Recent SPG dynamics resulted in an expansion of subtropical ecosystems into new habitats and likely also altered the transport of heat to high latitudes.
BT - Geophysical Research Letters
DO - https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087577
N2 - Abstract The North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) connects tropical and high-latitude waters, playing a leading role in deep-water formation, propagation of Atlantic water into the Arctic, and as habitat for many ecosystems. Instrumental records spanning recent decades document significant decadal variability in SPG circulation, with associated hydrographic and ecological changes. Emerging longer-term records provide circumstantial evidence that the North Atlantic also experienced centennial trends during the 20th century. Here, we use marine sediment records to show that there has been a long-term change in SPG circulation during the industrial era, largely during the 20th century. Moreover, we show that the shift and late 20th century SPG configuration were unprecedented in the last 10,000~years. Recent SPG dynamics resulted in an expansion of subtropical ecosystems into new habitats and likely also altered the transport of heat to high latitudes.
PY - 2020
EP - e2020GL087577
T2 - Geophysical Research Letters
TI - Exceptional 20th Century Ocean Circulation in the Northeast Atlantic
UR - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020GL087577
VL - 47
ER -