Pacific "cold tongue" shaped by ocean plants
Penguins of the Galapagos Islands. Photo: James Preston
Ocean plants can help shape Earth’s climate.
That’s according to research by oceanographers Whit Anderson and Anand Gnanadesikan. They’re with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. Gnanadesikan and Anderson studied a large ribbon of unusually cold water at the equator, near the Galapagos Islands. Scientists call it the “Pacific cold tongue.” Here’s Anand Gnanadesikan.
Anand Gnanadesikan: What’s new in our study is that we show that the water is able to remain cold because it’s shaded by the waters above which contain plants and colored substances and these little bits of organic matter that absorb and scatter light.
The nutrient–rich waters rise from the ocean depths because of the physics of Earth’s rotation and from strong trade winds at the water’s surface.
Anand Gnanadesikan: Without these particles absorbing and scattering light, what we show is that the planet would actually experience a permanent El Nino.
In other words, the warmer Pacific waters associated with the El Nino climate pattern might last a lot longer than it does at present. Right now, it comes and goes about every five years.
Anand Gnanadesikan: What’s important about that is that it really shows that changes in biology can have a direct impact on climate that’s much bigger than we previously realized.
Our thanks to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Impact of ocean color on the maintenance of the Pacific Cold Tongue
Our thanks to:
Anand Gnanadesikan
Research Oceanographer
Biospheric Processes Group
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab
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