Evolving Southern Ocean overturning in warming climates.

ABSTRACT: The Southern Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) has intensified in recent decades, yet the interplay between its Eulerian and eddy components under future warming remains uncertain. Using ensemble climate simulations, here we show that the Eulerian-mean MOC shifts poleward under high-emission scenarios during the twenty-first century, with compensating eddy-induced MOC sustaining a uniformly intensified residual overturning. This response is less pronounced under low-emission scenarios with climate mitigation. Likewise, a poleward-shifted Eulerian-mean MOC occurred during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, but with weaker, broader eddy compensation, leading to non-uniform intensified residual overturning. Across past and future warming climates, the eddy-induced MOC is primarily mod

SUBMITTER: Zhu T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12647794 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature