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08.05.2017: FB1-Seminar
11 Uhr, Hörsaal West, Düsternbrooker Weg 20
Abstract:
During my talk I will concentrate on two problems. In the first part I will discuss the role of oceanic transport of surface meltwater from the southern Greenland ice sheet into the Labrador Sea and the impacts of the increased fluxes observed in the last decade on the basin circulation and on the formation of Labrador Sea Water. I will do so using results from a regional model simulation that compare well with observations and reproduces the observed interannual variability of the basin.
In the second part I will focus on the contribution of the Labrador Sea to the oxygen budget of the North Atlantic and its projected evolution according to CMIP5 Earth System Models. I will presents results from the analysis of historical simulations covering the twentieth century and projections for the twenty-first century under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario. Despite an overall tendency of the North Atlantic to lose oxygen by the end of twenty-first century, patchy regions of O2 increase are observed in a subset of models. This regional resistance to deoxygenation is linked to a weakening of the North Atlantic Current causing the regional solubility increase to exceed the effect of increasing stratification. The results of our analysis imply that potential shifts in the North Atlantic Current will play a crucial role in the future projection of the regional oxygen concentration in the warming climate.
