MelbourneSouthern Ocean water 2,300 to 4,000 feet down is getting saltier.
The layer carries heat, carbon and oxygen north into the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Less sea ice means less meltwater, so Antarctic Intermediate Water turns saltier, reversing decades of freshening.
“Our climate models need to catch up,” said Michael Meredith, an oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey.
Co-author Bishakhdatta Gayen says impacts could arrive within five years without more monitoring.
How each outlet framed it
- Ars Technica
- reconstructs the salinity shift as a spreading water layer that carries heat and carbon north into tropical oceans
Sources: Ars Technica