High-latitude ocean ventilation and its role in Earth's climate transitions

Journal article

The processes regulating ocean ventilation at high latitudes are re-examined based on a range of observations spanning all scales of ocean circulation, from the centimetre scales of turbulence to the basin scales of gyres. It is argued that high-latitude ocean ventilation is controlled by mechanisms that differ in fundamental ways from those that set the overturning circulation. This is contrary to the assumption of broad equivalence between the two that is commonly adopted in interpreting the role of the high-latitude oceans in Earth's climate transitions. Illustrations of how recognizing this distinction may change our view of the ocean's role in the climate system are offered. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Ocean ventilation and deoxygenation in a warming world’.

Authors: Naveira Garabato, AC; MacGilchrist, GA; Brown, PJ; Evans, DG; Meijers, AJS

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Volume: 375
• Issue: 2102
• Pages: 20160324
• Article number: 20160324
• Publication date: 2017-08-07
• Acceptance date: 2017-06-05
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2016.0324
• EISSN: 1471-2962
• ISSN: 1364503X, 1364-503X
• Language: English
• Keywords: climate transitions; Southern Ocean; Arctic Ocean; ocean ventilation