Researchers have pinpointed the source of oxygen that sustains deep sea life in the North Atlantic Ocean: the churning waters in the Labrador Sea.
Researchers have pinpointed the source of oxygen that sustains deep sea life in the North Atlantic Ocean: the churning waters in the Labrador Sea.
The study, published in Nature Geoscience on Aug. 17, gives heightened significance to the Labrador Sea, sandwiched between Greenland and Newfoundland. There, waters from the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the ocean’s major current system, turn in a gyre, and oxygen-rich surface waters mix with deeper waters. Previous research had found that the Labrador Sea has little impact on the strength of AMOC, but the study finds it plays a critical role in oxygen transport.
The research also sheds light on processes that may be helping the North Atlantic maintain its oxygen levels, as oxygen declines in oceans globally due to warming temperatures.
“We found that the Labrador Sea exports enough oxygen to meet the biological need across a vast part of the deep North Atlantic Ocean, so it’s very likely crucial to sustain these deep sea ecosystems,” said first author Una Miller, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Our finding shows that if we’re going to understand the future, especially in the face of these deoxygenation trends, you can’t just look at the strength of AMOC, you also have to understand processes in the Labrador Sea.”
Read More: Cornell University
Photo Credit: StockSnap via Pixabay
