Africa-Press – Rwanda. The so-called Antarctic ocean overturning circulation may slow by over 40 percent in the next 30 years “if global carbon emissions continue at the current rate,” researchers claim.
The deep ocean water circulation system near Antarctica, which influences climate and marine ecosystems to a considerable degree, may be in peril, a new study suggests.
The research, coordinated by Scientia Professor Matthew England of the University of South Wales Sydney (UNSW Sydney), postulates that carbon emissions in the world have a negative effect on the process that involves trillions of tons of cold seawater sinking off the coast of Antarctica and driving the flow of overturning circulation – “a network of currents that spans the world’s oceans” that “carries heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the globe.”
The researchers have discovered that the melting of Antarctic ice results in the ocean waters near the frozen continent becoming less dense, which slows the Antarctic overturning circulation.
If the current in question were to collapse, the oceans below the 4,000 meter depth would stagnate, as the press release puts it, with Prof. England warning about a “possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass.”
“Such profound changes to the ocean’s overturning of heat, freshwater, oxygen, carbon and nutrients will have a significant adverse impact on the oceans for centuries to come,” he added.
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