Global warming is breaking a 400-year climate link between two oceans
A study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reveals that human-caused climate change is disrupting the historical climate link between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Researchers used paleoclimate data to show that while volcanic eruptions caused temporary shifts in the past, current greenhouse gas emissions are driving an unprecedented breakdown in this relationship.
Why it matters
Understanding these ocean-atmosphere connections is critical for predicting global rainfall and temperature patterns, which are increasingly volatile due to climate change.
A new study suggests that the climate connection between the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans can be disrupted by major volcanic eruptions, while human-caused greenhouse gas emissions may now be driving an even more unusual breakdown in that relationship.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) combined paleoclimate evidence with climate model simulations to examine how closely the two ocean basins have behaved over the past several centuries.
Their findings indicate that volcanism can temporarily weaken the climate link between the Indian and Pacific oceans. More recently, however, human-driven climate forcing has produced what the researchers describe as an "exceptional" shift in the way climate variability in the two regions is connected.
The study was published in Nature Communications under the title "Coupling of Pacific and Indian Ocean variability disrupted by 19th century volcanism."
A Climate Connection That Usually Moves in Step
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