Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
How Do Arctic and Subarctic Processes Interconnect? What Have we Learned?
Robert Dickson1, Jens Meincke2
1Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0HT, UK, Phone +44-1502-562-24, Fax +44-1502-513-86, r.r.dickson@cefas.co.uk
2Institute of Oceanography, University of Hamburg, Troplowitzstraße 7, Hamburg, D-22529, Germany, Phone +49-40-42838-5, Fax +49-40-442838-6, meincke@ifm.uni-hamburg.de
This talk is intended both to review major points of the OSM and to stimulate discussion on the interconnected nature of Arctic-subarctic change and change-processes. It is based on 10 main statements:
1) The climatic forcing of Arctic and subarctic seas in recent decades has been extreme;
2) Change can be imposed on the Arctic Ocean from the Nordic Seas;
3) Localized processes on the Arctic Shelves can drive extensive changes in the watermasses of the Arctic Ocean and N. Greenland Sea;
4) We have experienced two episodes of Arctic warming in recent decades, with quite different causes;
5) Arctic change can reach south to impose change on the Nordic Seas and on the deep/abyssal Atlantic;
6) The freshwater flux from the Arctic to the north Atlantic doesn’t always get through
7) There has been a major increase in the outflux of fresh water from Arctic/subarctic seas over the past 4 decades, ultimately affecting the surface, intermediate, deep and abyssal layers of the N Atlantic;
8) Paleo records suggest that freshwater irruptions to the NW Atlantic have been associated with rapid changes in Atlantic climate, presumed due to an effect on the Meridional Overturning Circulation;
9) The recent freshening of our subarctic seas may not be a N. Atlantic event merely but the strong local expression of a change in the Global Water Cycle;
10) These changes on the scale of oceans and decades have been accompanied by massive changes in the great fisheries of subarctic seas.
Abstract Categories: Keynote
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