It's difficult to determine if the Gulf Stream's slowdown is caused by
climate change, notwithstanding the conclusion of a recent
investigation.
A recent research has revealed the most likely weakening of the Gulf
Stream.
Over the past 40 years, the flow of warm water across the Florida Straits
has decreased by 4%, which has serious consequences for the global
climate.
Originating close to Florida, the ocean current follows a warm water belt
through the East Coast of the United States and Canada before making its way
across the Atlantic to Europe. Its ability to carry heat is crucial for
preserving temperate weather and controlling sea levels.
However, according to a study that was published on September 25 in the
journal Geophysical Research Letters, this stream is slowing down.
Lead author
Christopher Piecuch, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in
Massachusetts,
said in a statement, "This is the strongest, most definitive evidence we have of the weakening
of this climatically-relevant ocean current."
The thermohaline circulation, a worldwide network of ocean currents that
transports heat, carbon, nutrients, oxygen, and other elements throughout
the world while also assisting in the regulation of sea levels and hurricane
activity, includes the Gulf Stream as a minor part.
The Gulf Stream transports warmer, denser, and saltier southerly waters
northward to cool and sink in the North Atlantic. It originates in the
Caribbean and flows through the Florida Straits into the Atlantic. The water
slowly moves southward after submerging deeply under the ocean and releasing
its heat into the atmosphere, where it warms up once again and the cycle
continues.
The sweeping action of the current keeps the seas around the U.S. East
Coast up to
five feet (1.5 meters) lower than the waters farther offshore, therefore this mechanism is essential to
sustaining sea levels and temperatures there.
Scientists believe that as Earth's temperature rises, a
massive amount of cold, fresh water from ice sheets that are melting is seeping into the seas.
This may potentially slow down or perhaps cause the Gulf Stream to
completely collapse. However, this is difficult to establish because of the
system's complexity and size.
Scientists examined data from three different sources spanning 40 years to
investigate the current's movements throughout the Florida Straits:
underwater cables, satellite altimetry, and on-site observations. The goal
was to discover conclusive proof that the stream is slowing down.
According to their statistical analysis, there was only a 1% possibility
that their measurement was an anomaly due to random oscillations, meaning
that the current had slowed by 4%.
Although a 4% shift might not seem like much at first, oceanographer
Helen Czerski of
University College London (UCL), who was not involved in the study, told
Live Science that "the worry is that's just the slow start."
It's similar to the early COVID years. "Oh, there's only 60 cases," someone
said. We're not interested in this," she continued. "Yes, there are just 60
instances, but there were 30 yesterday and 15 the day before that. We have
an issue if you simply plan one week ahead of time."
Scientists will have to distinguish between the effects of global warming
and the inherent variability of ocean systems in order to find conclusive
evidence that climate change is the cause. This will be a challenging task
considering how recently humans have been able to measure ocean flows
precisely.
