Long-Term Data Show a Recent Acceleration in Chemical and Physical Changes in the Ocean

Typography

New research published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment uses data from two sustained open-ocean hydrographic stations in the North Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda to demonstrate recent changes in ocean physics and chemistry since the 1980s.

New research published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment uses data from two sustained open-ocean hydrographic stations in the North Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda to demonstrate recent changes in ocean physics and chemistry since the 1980s. The study shows decadal variability and recent acceleration of surface warming, salinification, deoxygenation, and changes in carbon dioxide (CO2)-carbonate chemistry that drives ocean acidification.

The study utilized datasets from Hydrostation ‘S’ and the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) projects at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). Both are led by Professor Nicholas Bates, BIOS senior scientist and the projects’ principal investigator (PI), and Rod Johnson, BIOS assistant scientist and the projects’ co-PI. Together, these time-series represent the two longest continuous records of data from the global open ocean.

“The four decades of data from BATS and Hydrostation ‘S’ show that the ocean is not changing uniformly over time and that the ocean carbon sink is not stable over recent time with variability from decade to decade,” Bates said.

Read more at: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences