Researchers Reveals that the Deep Sea is Slowly Warming

New research led by a researcher from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, reveals that the temperatures in the deep sea fluctuate more than scientists previously thought. And that there is now a warming trend detectable at the bottom of the ocean.

For this new study, a decade of hourly temperature recordings from moorings anchored at four (4) depths in the Atlantic Ocean’s Argentine Basin off the coast of Uruguay has been analyzed by the researchers.

The range of the depths:

• Average ocean depth of 3,682 meters (12,080 feet)
• Shallowest is at 1,360 meters (4,460 feet)
• Deepest is at 4,757 meters (15,600 feet)

It was found out by the team of researchers from NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and University of São Paulo that between 2009 and 2019, all sites exhibited a warming trend of 0.02 to 0.04 degrees Celsius per decade.

The authors of the study stated that this increase is consistent with warming trends in the shallow ocean associated with anthropogenic climate change. However, to be able to understand what is driving rising temperatures in the deep ocean, more research is still needed.

“In years past, everybody used to assume the deep ocean was quiescent. There was no motion. There were no changes. But each time we go look we find that the ocean is more complex than we thought.”

– Chris Meinen, an oceanographer at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and lead author of the study

These results, according to the authors, demonstrate that the temperature of the deep ocean has to be taken by scientists at least once a year. This is to account for the fluctuations and pick up on meaningful long-term trends.

Since there are a number of studies around the world, where this kind of data has been collected, have not been looked at, Meinen said, “I’m hoping that this is going to lead to a reanalysis of a number of these historical datasets to try and see what we can say about deep ocean temperature variability.”

About the Study

“Because the world’s oceans absorb so much of the world’s heat, learning about the ocean’s temperature trends can help researchers better understand temperature fluctuations in the atmosphere as well.”

– NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory on AGU on October 13, 2020

The study about this discovery is called the “Observed Ocean Bottom Temperature Variability at Four Sites in the Northwestern Argentine Basin: Evidence of Decadal Deep/Abyssal Warming Amidst Hourly to Interannual Variability During 2009–2019” and is published in the Journal Geophysical Research Letters on September 9, 2020.

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Source: NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory| US Department of Commerce, Journal| Geophysical Research Letters, AGU