PS003
Dynamics of the ocean's overturning: past, present, and future
Dynamics of the ocean's overturning: past, present, and future
Session ID#: 257112
Session Description:
The ocean’s overturning circulation is a critical component of Earth’s climate system, impacting heat transport, carbon storage, nutrient distribution, and primary productivity across the globe. However, the strength and geometry of the overturning circulation has changed in the past, and may change in the future, with implications for both global and regional climate and carbon cycling. This session invites contributions that explore the dynamics of ocean overturning across different timescales—from paleoclimate reconstructions to modern observations and future projections. With this session, we aim to foster interdisciplinary discussions and theoretical understanding on the processes and feedbacks driving overturning strength, variability, and stability under different climate states.
Potential themes include but are not limited to:
- Past variability: Insights from paleo-proxies and modeling on how overturning circulation responded to past climatic shifts (e.g., glacial-interglacial cycles, past warm worlds).
- Present-day changes: Observational and modeling analyses of recent trends in overturning strength, regional water-mass transformations, and interactions with ice sheets and atmospheric forcing.
- Future projections: Simulations of how overturning may evolve under anthropogenic warming, including potential tipping points, and feedback mechanisms.
We are particularly interested in studies that advance our contemporary theory of overturning dynamics, or that link observational or modelling results with existing theory.
Co-Sponsor(s):
- Climate and Ocean Change -
- High Latitude Environments -
Index Terms:
4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4532 General circulation [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4999 General or miscellaneous [PALEOCEANOGRAPHY]
Student/Early Career Chair: Yubeen Jeong, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Chapel Hill, United States
Primary Chair: Andrea Burke, University of St Andrews, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, St Andrews, United Kingdom
Co-chairs: Graeme MacGilchrist, University of St. Andrews, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, St Andrews, United Kingdom and Helen L Johnson, University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom
See more of: Physical Oceanography