German scientists warn of changes in Arctic Ocean circulation

Nature News

Feb 18, 2008, 10:05 GMT

Hamburg, Germany - Marine scientists in Germany have issued an alarming warning about the radically alteration of the circulation of water in the Arctic Ocean. The findings by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM- GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, have dire implications for climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Hitherto, the circulation of the Arctic Ocean was driven by the formation of sea ice rather than the inflow of North Atlantic deep water. Recently, however, the shrinkage of sea ice due to global warming has resulted in the startling reversal, according to the study by the German scientists which is published in the new journal Nature Geoscience. The latest findings are based on geo-chemical analyses of sediment cores taken from the depths of the Arctic Ocean as part of the EU- funded ECORD (European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling) project. The Arctic Ocean only has a limited exchange with the global ocean, whereby the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard is the only deep water connection to the Atlantic Ocean. It is this connection that supplies oxygen to the deep Arctic Ocean. Today a pronounced and stable freshwater layer at the surface originating from inputs of the large Russian rivers almost completely prevents any significant deep water formation in the Arctic Ocean itself. But the findings by Brian Haley and colleagues from the IFM-GEOMAR now show that this was an exception rather than the rule for most of the past 15 million years. The Kiel team made their discovery when they carried out geo- chemical analyses on sediments of the Arctic Coring Expedition and of an expedition by the German seagoing research vessel, the Polarstern. The sediment cores had been taken from the seabed near the North Pole on the Lomonosov Ridge between 1,000 und 1,200 metres water depth. The scientists were particularly interested in changes in the isotope ratio of the element neodymium. Neodymium has different isotope ratios depending on the age and type of rock. When rocks are weathered, the element is washed into the sea, where it provides information on the sources of the water in the ocean. The cores enabled the researchers to study changes in the sources of water in the Arctic Ocean going back 15 million years. The scientists were surprised to find that the isotope signature for much of the history of the ocean is very different from the signature found today. The isotope ratios in much of the core correspond to basalt rocks such as those found in the Kara Sea area. This suggests that for most of the last 15 million years, the seawater above the sediments came from within the Arctic Ocean itself. In contrast, today much of the deep water in the Arctic Ocean flows in through the Fram Strait from the Atlantic.

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NoharnessFeb 19th, 2008 - 09:12:41

This article suffers very badly from a lack of clarity. Would the author please be good enough to try again?

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JohnFeb 19th, 2008 - 20:57:50

I agree - what is the point of a 'dire warning' if no effects are mentioned. Should we now shelter under our beds until the situation is clarified ?

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SP4: That's the point, right?Feb 20th, 2008 - 18:33:36

The 'dire warning'... as if we had a thing to say about ocean currents...

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tonny from belgiumFeb 21st, 2008 - 11:24:50

SP4 always in to make the most idiot remark as usual.Read the article and find what it 's all about instead of spreading your ignorance to the subject.

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Fool on the hillFeb 24th, 2008 - 10:37:03

Last summers ice melt in the Arctic Ocean was the largest ever recorded.
I have just been looking at a satelite image of the Arctic ice and there is a large area of fast ice [an area that stays permanately frozen] and it has broken up.
I have no doubt that this years melt will again break all previous records.

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SP4: Actually, Tonny, I read it...Feb 25th, 2008 - 20:10:40

...and it amounts to one study only.

Every time we read one of thee gems, it is written by a person not in the field. He is told what is important, not coming to the conclusions himself. Then, based on this, he writes the story.

It's the worst way to get science. It is how the press mucks up a complicated subject. Other gems from pseudoscience history:

Cranberrys cause cancer - sh-theads who published this in the 60's damn near ruined the cranberry industry.

Alar covered apples - same crap, never proved to be a threat

Breast implant cause cancer - proven wrong right after the zillion dollar settlement

Other cancer causes - must be a thousand of them, subsequently proven false, from meat, to radiowaves.

Global cooling - hey...just wait!

Spotted Owl and old growth timber - turned out to be the striped owl pushing it out of it's habitat

Eugenics

...and a hundred more.

Science, Tonny, is not religion. Each study has to be supported by further work. When I see something like this, it's a snapshot by a photographer with lots of reasons to play with the picture. Go ponder that and get back to us.

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tonny from belgiumMar 5th, 2008 - 19:16:28

Greenland lost 200 cubic km of ice last year.That is confirmed by all studies.What more to say ....SP4 probably will say it is irrelevant anyway.Care to try your imagination on the size of the cube ?If all ther ice melts ,which is bound to happen ,the sealavel will raise with 7 meter.Kiss goodbye to big parts of Florida ,LOndon,Holloand,etc.And that is just the consequences on landmass obly .I wish SP4 would get a decent education.He is no publicity for US education standards.Two degrees did you say ?

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SP4: Check it...Mar 7th, 2008 - 15:30:17

Tonny is the libnazi standard. He would rather take a science he agrees with on it's face than question it's shortcomings, thus unraveling his beliefs. This is not science, this is religion. The religious zealots of the Libnazis have three arguments:

You're stupid

You're crazy

You're a radical

The goal here is to reaffirm the libnazi church's beliefs by pillorying the infidels.

Now, Greenland may be losing ice, but that really does not address why it is happening. This is where this pseudoscience really fails.

If c02 content is raising temperatures, worldwide, why are we having one of the coldest winters on record, in many parts of the world? Thermodynamics tells us that, if c02 is the driver, and the c02 has stayed steady or risen, we shouldn't have a colder winter...

unless

Something else is affecting the outcome. Fine, if that is true, then we must accept the possibility that something else is driving global climate change too. This is the flaw in the great hoax:

You either accept c02 as a single driver of warming until it fails to warm, and then you must look for other reasons.

This flies in the face of the propagandists who simply wish to institutionalize their false beliefs on the populations. Numerous scientists are calling all this into question, a legitimate activity for a scientist.

Now, experts are coming out. NOAA, John R. Christy, the Oregon State Meteorologist, who was fired for his beliefs, all are questioning this. The result: they are persecuted or pilloried for their dissent.

Don't get me wrong, I accept climate change because climate on earth is ALWAYS changing! I just do not trust scientists who let others write their conclusions.

other scientific mistakes and hoaxes of the 20th century:

Eugenics

Cancer from Cranberries

XYY chromosomes responsible for criminal behavior

Old growth timber and the spotted owl

treatment of psychological disorders with frontal lobotomies

stress as a cause of stomach ulcers.

Tonny, grow up. Use your intellect.

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SP4: oh yeahMar 7th, 2008 - 15:32:22

...one more: Global cooling

but if we wait, they might just be right! hahahahahahahahaha!

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That is RightMar 7th, 2008 - 20:04:07

This slavish devotion to a single theory prevents and discourages dispassionate scientific research into other possible causes.

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