Premium
Global warming may have slowed down the deep conveyor belt of a marginal sea of the northwestern Pacific: Japan Sea
Author(s) -
Gamo Toshitaka
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl002341
Subject(s) - abyssal zone , oceanography , sink (geography) , anoxic waters , seawater , bottom water , geology , environmental science , seabed , glacial period , sea level , global warming , climatology , climate change , geography , paleontology , cartography
Weakening of the abyssal circulation (conveyor belt) in the Japan Sea during the 20th century is deduced from the decreasing trend of bottom dissolved oxygen (O 2 ). This trend indicates a shortened O 2 supply, caused by too inactive conveyor belt to compensate for biological O 2 consumption at the bottom of the sea. Recent climatic changes during the winter season in the northern Japan Sea may play a significant role in prohibiting the formation of surface seawater dense enough to sink to the bottom. It is predicted that the Japan Sea bottom water will become anoxic within a few hundred years, as it was in the last glacial maximum.