Gulfstream does not die
Everywhere and only hear : warm Gulf Stream moves north and may die. But is it really? In search of an answer to this global issue MK.RU appealed to the two Russian experts on climate .
If you believe this new study , the Gulf Stream (Gulf Stream) along the coast of eastern Canada in recent decades has shifted north from the site of the historical flow , which presumably occurs in response to human influence on climate.
According to scientists from North America and Switzerland , these recent changes may conceive some significant consequences for marine life (flora and fauna ) .
These metamorphoses observed since the early 1970s and have largely become a unique event for the past 1,800 years of Earth’s history , the researchers report in the Journal of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Karsten Schubert (Schubert) of the Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag / Research Institute of Water Federal Polytechnics) states that for 2000 years, the Labrador Current was stronger than the Gulf Stream. Now, however, things can change.
Proof of a radical shift in the Atlantic ocean currents can get from corals , biochemists and oceanographers believe from Switzerland , Canada and the United States , who noticed that the cold ocean Labrador flow moving along the west coast of the United States has lost its primacy in favor of the Gulf Stream.
To arrive at their conclusions , the researchers studied the isotopic composition of nitrogen in coral reefs that feed on organic particles carried by currents , and analyzed the growth of their “colored” rings 700 years .
New research focuses on the area near the coast of Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia). This area of the Atlantic is fed from the north by the cold waters of the Labrador Current and the south – the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream. Mixing these two streams of water creates a nutrient-rich ecosystem for species such as cod, which is interested large fishing industry .
Gulf Stream waters are salty , and they are rich in organic particles , but the arctic waters of Labrador impoverish food corals. Researchers also believe that there is a direct relationship between changes in ocean currents in the North Atlantic and warming caused by human activity.
To note, both of these trends play an important role in global climate change, as they relate to the Atlantic Oscillation multidekadnoy
Long-term fluctuations in temperature cycle . Oscillation – fluctuations .
(Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation / AMO). AMO – cyclical change in current large-scale oceanic and atmospheric processes in the North Atlantic , which ” raises ” or ” lowers ” the temperature of the surface of the ocean , as well as affecting the weather in Europe and the United States.
Expert commented zav.lab.vzaimodeystviya Gulf Stream ocean and the atmosphere of the Institute of Oceanology. Shirshov ( RAS) Sergey Gulev :
Gulfstream does not die . It flows quite normal. Gulfstream disappear , ie, can not die . It can temporarily weaken slightly , slightly increase. Certainly, it is an important signal in the climate dynamics of the ocean. But to say that the Gulf Stream dies or it stops – it’s too hasty step. Anyway, in the foreseeable future , that is, within a few centuries.
According to the latest Russian research , changes in the Gulf Stream is not so significant , as shown by the findings of Western colleagues. Western surveys cover only about one hundred kilometers .
Neither research model is not capable to grasp the significant displacement of the Gulf Stream . Virtually all models initially not correctly simulate the Gulf Stream separation from the continent .
Define what the Gulf Stream – is incredibly difficult. This is not some kind of a river in the ocean, as is often thought . It is rather a sort of plexus, weaving a very large number of meanders . Gulfstream – some jet stream , strongly meandering band width in the ocean in a couple of hundred kilometers , which is filled with such vortices and which also move.
The Gulf Stream is like a drive belt in the car : it is spanned by the rollers and meanders between them. True physics of this phenomenon is not entirely clear . Whether these vortices rotate and push this “belt” , then this belt driven vortices.
Boris Filin, a specialist from the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring :
First, while it is impossible to judge confidently , especially on a coral reef , as it is very indirect method . Secondly , the displacement of the Gulf Stream , which researchers say so loudly , nothing radical speaks. In addition to speed and direction of displacement of the Gulf Stream still has a number of factors , and therefore quite difficult to determine which of them is making a greater contribution to the formation of weather in a certain period of time.