Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release
The Beaufort Gyre (BG), the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has drastically increased its liquid freshwater content by 40% in the past two decades. If released within a short period, the excess freshwater could potentially impact the large-scale ocean circulation by freshening the upper s...
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Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1807827 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1807827 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 |
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1807827 2023-07-30T04:00:09+02:00 Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release Zhang, Jiaxu Weijer, Wilbert Steele, Michael Cheng, Wei Verma, Tarun Veneziani, Milena 2021-09-06 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1807827 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1807827 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1807827 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1807827 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2021 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 2023-07-11T10:05:26Z The Beaufort Gyre (BG), the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has drastically increased its liquid freshwater content by 40% in the past two decades. If released within a short period, the excess freshwater could potentially impact the large-scale ocean circulation by freshening the upper subpolar North Atlantic. Here, we track BG-sourced freshwater using passive tracers in a global ocean sea-ice model and show that this freshwater exited the Arctic mostly through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, rather than Fram Strait, during an historical release event in 1983–1995. The Labrador Sea is the most affected region in the subpolar North Atlantic, with a freshening of 0.2 psu on the western shelves and 0.4 psu in the Labrador Current. Given that the present BG freshwater content anomaly is twice the historical analog studied here, the impact of a future rapid release on Labrador Sea salinity could be significant, easily exceeding similar fluxes from Greenland meltwater. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Fram Strait Greenland Labrador Sea North Atlantic Sea ice SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland Nature Communications 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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language |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Zhang, Jiaxu Weijer, Wilbert Steele, Michael Cheng, Wei Verma, Tarun Veneziani, Milena Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
The Beaufort Gyre (BG), the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has drastically increased its liquid freshwater content by 40% in the past two decades. If released within a short period, the excess freshwater could potentially impact the large-scale ocean circulation by freshening the upper subpolar North Atlantic. Here, we track BG-sourced freshwater using passive tracers in a global ocean sea-ice model and show that this freshwater exited the Arctic mostly through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, rather than Fram Strait, during an historical release event in 1983–1995. The Labrador Sea is the most affected region in the subpolar North Atlantic, with a freshening of 0.2 psu on the western shelves and 0.4 psu in the Labrador Current. Given that the present BG freshwater content anomaly is twice the historical analog studied here, the impact of a future rapid release on Labrador Sea salinity could be significant, easily exceeding similar fluxes from Greenland meltwater. |
author |
Zhang, Jiaxu Weijer, Wilbert Steele, Michael Cheng, Wei Verma, Tarun Veneziani, Milena |
author_facet |
Zhang, Jiaxu Weijer, Wilbert Steele, Michael Cheng, Wei Verma, Tarun Veneziani, Milena |
author_sort |
Zhang, Jiaxu |
title |
Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
title_short |
Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
title_full |
Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
title_fullStr |
Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
title_full_unstemmed |
Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release |
title_sort |
labrador sea freshening linked to beaufort gyre freshwater release |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1807827 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1807827 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Fram Strait Greenland Labrador Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Canadian Arctic Archipelago Fram Strait Greenland Labrador Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1807827 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1807827 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21470-3 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1772810735758344192 |