Francesco Muschitiello, an author of the study and an assistant professor of geography at the University of Cambridge, said the findings are worrisome because early warming suggests there could be a flaw in the models that scientists use to predict how the climate will change.
“The Arctic Ocean has been warming for much longer than we previously thought,” Muschitiello told CNN. “And this is somewhat worrisome for a number of reasons, not least because the climate models that we use to make projections of future climate change don’t really simulate the kinds of changes that would occur,” he said. change this.”
The researchers used marine sediments in the Fram Straight, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Pole east of Greenland, to reconstruct 800-year-old data that paints a longer historical picture of how Atlantic water flows into the Arctic. . Marine sediments are “natural archives,” recording data about past climate conditions, the researchers write.
The researchers found that temperature and salinity, the salinity of ocean water, remained fairly stable until the 20th century – after which they suddenly increased.
Rong Zhang, a NOAA senior scientist, a NOAA senior scientist, said: “The reconstruction shows a significant increase in Atlantic temperature and salt transport into the Nordic Sea. in the early 20th century. The lab, who was not involved in the study, told CNN. “It is important to understand the cause of this rapid Atlantis process, as well as the difference between model simulation and reconstruction.”
Muschitiello said it was not clear what role anthropogenic climate change played in early Arctic warming, and more research was needed.
“We’re talking about the early 1900s, and by that time we were supercharging the atmosphere with carbon dioxide,” he said. “It is possible that the Arctic Ocean is more sensitive to greenhouse gases than previously thought. Of course, this will require more research, because we don’t have the real mechanism behind the original Atlantis process. this.”
Rapidly warming temperatures in the Arctic have caused the sea ice to melt, thereby causing more warming – while the bright white sea ice reflects the sun’s energy, the black sea absorbs it in the form of heat.
James E. Overland, NOAA Arctic scientist based at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said such lasting changes in the North Atlantic, along with the loss of recent sea ice in the Arctic, is threatening marine ecosystems.
Overland, who was not involved in the study, told CNN: “The loss of sea ice and ocean currents has shifted the buffer between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans to an area closer to a tributary of the central Atlantic.” “Important fisheries and marine mammal species are vulnerable to ecosystem reorganization from such Atlanteanisation.”
“When I talk to my students, I always try to make them aware that the Arctic is warming very, very quickly and much faster than any other region on the planet,” says Muschitiello. “It’s very disturbing and very troubling, especially since we still don’t fully understand the feedback during the game.”
“We are still slowly figuring out how the whole system works,” he said. “And my fear is that by the time we have solved the problem, it will be too late.”
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