IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v415y2002i6874d10.1038_415863a.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of the thermohaline circulation in abrupt climate change

Author

Listed:
  • Peter U. Clark

    (Oregon State University)

  • Nicklas G. Pisias

    (College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University)

  • Thomas F. Stocker

    (Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, Physics Institute)

  • Andrew J. Weaver

    (School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria)

Abstract

The possibility of a reduced Atlantic thermohaline circulation in response to increases in greenhouse-gas concentrations has been demonstrated in a number of simulations with general circulation models of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system. But it remains difficult to assess the likelihood of future changes in the thermohaline circulation, mainly owing to poorly constrained model parameterizations and uncertainties in the response of the climate system to greenhouse warming. Analyses of past abrupt climate changes help to solve these problems. Data and models both suggest that abrupt climate change during the last glaciation originated through changes in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation in response to small changes in the hydrological cycle. Atmospheric and oceanic responses to these changes were then transmitted globally through a number of feedbacks. The palaeoclimate data and the model results also indicate that the stability of the thermohaline circulation depends on the mean climate state.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter U. Clark & Nicklas G. Pisias & Thomas F. Stocker & Andrew J. Weaver, 2002. "The role of the thermohaline circulation in abrupt climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 415(6874), pages 863-869, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6874:d:10.1038_415863a
    DOI: 10.1038/415863a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/415863a
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/415863a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anders Levermann & Jonathan Bamber & Sybren Drijfhout & Andrey Ganopolski & Winfried Haeberli & Neil Harris & Matthias Huss & Kirstin Krüger & Timothy Lenton & Ronald Lindsay & Dirk Notz & Peter Wadha, 2012. "Potential climatic transitions with profound impact on Europe," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 845-878, February.
    2. Elizabeth Kopits & Alex L. Marten & Ann Wolverton, 2013. "Moving Forward with Incorporating "Catastrophic" Climate Change into Policy Analysis," NCEE Working Paper Series 201301, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Jan 2013.
    3. Ashantha Goonetilleke & Tan Yigitcanlar & Godwin A. Ayoko & Prasanna Egodawatta, 2014. "Sustainable Urban Water Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14894.
    4. Barfuss, Wolfram & Donges, Jonathan & Bethge, Matthias, 2024. "Ecologically-mediated collective action in commons with tipping elements," OSF Preprints 7pcnm, Center for Open Science.
    5. Priyesh Prabhat & Waliur Rahaman & Nambiyathodi Lathika & Mohd Tarique & Ravi Mishra & Meloth Thamban, 2022. "Modern-like deep water circulation in Indian Ocean caused by Central American Seaway closure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6874:d:10.1038_415863a. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.