Accelerated freshening of Antarctic Bottom Water over the last decade in the Southern Indian Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Southern Ocean abyssal waters, in contact with the atmosphere at their formation sites around Antarctica, not only bring signals of a changing climate with them as they move around the globe but also contribute to that change through heat uptake and sea level rise. A repeat hydrographic line in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean, occupied three times in the last two decades (1994, 2007, and, most recently, 2016), reveals that Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) continues to become fresher (0.004 ± 0.001 kg/g decade^-1), warmer (0.06° ± 0.01°C decade^-1), and less dense (0.011 ± 0.002 kg/m³ decade^-1). The most recent observations in the Australian-Antarctic Basin show a particularly striking acceleration in AABW freshening between 2007 and 2016 (0.00

SUBMITTER: Menezes VV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5266476 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature