Monday May 9, 2022
Kaua’i Now —
The ocean is suffering from “amnesia” because of climate change, according to a recently published study that was co-authored by a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa professor.
According to the study, published in Science Advances, the research team made their discovery by assessing future projections from the latest generation of Earth System Models. Across climate models, ocean “memory” decline was found as a collective response to human-induced global warming.
“Reduced ocean memory together with increased random fluctuations suggest intrinsic changes in the system and new challenges in prediction under warming,” Fei-Fei Jin, an atmospheric sciences professor at the UH-Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and study co-author, said in a UH press release.
Ocean memory is related to the thickness of its uppermost layer, the mixed layer. Deeper mixed layers have greater heat content, which confers more thermal inertia that translates into memory. However, the mixed layer over most oceans will become shallower in response to continued warming, resulting in a decline in ocean memory.