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Nonmonotonic Change of the Arctic Ocean Freshwater Storage Capability in a Warming Climate
Author(s) -
Wang Shizhu,
Wang Qiang,
Shu Qi,
Song Zhenya,
Lohmann Gerrit,
Danilov Sergey,
Qiao Fangli
Publication year - 2021
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 - 10.1029/2020gl090951
Subject(s) - arctic , arctic dipole anomaly , environmental science , sea ice , oceanography , arctic sea ice decline , climate change , global warming , arctic ice pack , arctic geoengineering , surface runoff , arctic ecology , climatology , the arctic , lead (geology) , geology , drift ice , ecology , biology , geomorphology
Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean is one of the key climate components. It is not well understood how the capability of the Arctic Ocean to store freshwater will develop when freshwater supplies increase in a warming climate. By using numerical experiments, we find that this capability varies with the Arctic sea ice decline nonmonotonically, with the largest capability at intermediate strength of sea ice decline. Through enhancing the ocean surface stress, sea ice decline not only accumulates freshwater toward the Amerasian Basin but also tends to reduce the amount of freshwater in both the Eurasian and Amerasian basins by increasing the occupation of Atlantic‐origin water in the upper ocean. An increase in river runoff modulates the counterbalance of the two competing effects, leading to the nonmonotonic changes of the Arctic freshwater storage capability in a warming climate.