Impact of Climate Change
The Subantarctic Mode Water acts as a carbon sink, absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in solution. In the event of global heating due to climate change, the amount of carbon dioxide that the SAMW is able to absorb will lessen. Downes et al. (2009) found that through climate modeling, in the event of a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration the Subantarctic Mode water will decrease in density and salinity.
-
Salinity (colors) and temperature (contours) at 50E, illustrating the low stratification layer associated with the Subantarctic Mode Water at this longitude.
-
Salinity (colors) and temperature (contours) at 170W, showing that the SAMW is much closer in temperature to the salinity minimum associated with the Antarctic Intermediate Water.
Read more about this topic: Subantarctic Mode Water
Famous quotes containing the words impact of, impact, climate and/or change:
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow, and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy-gifts fading away.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)