Climate change has wrought major changes to ocean stability faster than previously thought, according to a study published Wednesday, raising alarms over its role as a global thermostat and the marine life it supports.
Climate change has disrupted ocean mixing, a process that helps store away most of the world's excess heat and a significant proportion of CO2.
Water on the surface is warmer – and therefore less dense – than the water below, a contrast that is intensified by climate change.
Global warming is also causing massive amounts of fresh water to flush into the seas from melting ice sheets and glaciers, lowering the salinity of the upper layer and further reducing its density.
This increasing contrast between the density of the ocean layers makes mixing harder, so oxygen, heat and carbon are all less able to penetrate to the deep seas.
