Climate Warming: Lessons from the Past: Professor Syee Weldeab
Professor Syee Weldeab is featured in GSA News and The Current at UCSB.
This study shows that equatorial Atlantic intermediate waters (~830 m depth) warmed by about 5 °C during the mid- to late Holocene, despite no major increase in radiative forcing and no significant temperature changes of the overlying surface waters. The warming was likely caused by stronger and southward-shifted Southern Hemisphere westerly winds, which enhanced the transport of heat into the ocean interior and toward the tropics. These findings reveal an important mechanism by which the ocean redistributes and stores heat, providing insights into how excess heat may be sequestered during ongoing global warming.
GSA News
Caption for the image: Marine sediments and the microorganisms preserved within them provide valuable archives for reconstructing past ocean and climate changes.