Polar Tropical and Interhemispheric Linkages

Abstract

Our view of the ocean’s role in climate change has changed substantially during the past ten years. Back then, changes in ocean circulation and deep-ocean carbon storage have been perceived as key players in climate change in that they have the capacity to cause changes in regional and interhemispheric marine heat transports and ocean- atmosphere carbon exchange thereby altering the atmosphere’s chemistry. Yet, the role these factors play in climate change was largely considered passive as it was believed that climatically-relevant ocean change is triggered by climate change itself. As such, the ocean would modulate the effects of climate change by moderating or amplifying the magnitude of climate change on a regional basis, but climate change itself would need an external trigger e. g., orbitally induced variations in incoming solar energy.