Global Warming

Global warming speeds up currents in the ocean’s abyss

University of Sydney scientists have used the geological record of the deep sea to discover that past global warming has sped up deep ocean circulation. This is one of the missing links for predicting how future climate change may affect heat and carbon capture by the oceans: more vigorous ocean currents make it easier for carbon and heat to be ‘mixed in’.

So far, the ocean has absorbed a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 and over 90 percent of the associated excess heat.

Microscopic marine organisms called plankton use this dissolved carbon to build their shells. They sink down to the seabed after they die, sequestering the carbon. These sedimentary deposits form the Earth’s largest carbon sink.

Independent studies using satellite data suggest that large-scale ocean circulation and ocean eddies have become more intense over the last two to three decades of global warming. The more vigorous circulation creates conditions for potentially greater efficiency in storing carbon.

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