By The ocean’s circulatory system may not be doing as poorly as previously thought.
A vital ocean artery known as the Florida Current, a bellwether for the ocean’s ability to regulate Earth’s climate, has seemingly been weakening for decades. But that recent decline might not be quite as severe as suspected. The current has actually remained stable over recent decades, researchers report September 5 in Nature Communications.
A previously reported decline in the flow had prompted speculations that a major system of ocean currents — known for regulating Earth’s climate — may have weakened recently due to human-caused climate change. Some researchers have suggested that the larger system, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, could collapse sometime this century, dramatically cooling the northern hemisphere and raising the sea level along some Atlantic coastlines by up to 70 centimeters.
