Climate change impacts on ocean circulation relevant to the UK and Ireland

McCarthy, G.D.; Burmeister, K.; Cunningham, S.A.; Düsterhus, A.; Frajka-Williams, E.; Graham, J.A.; Hodge, K.R.; Holliday, N.P.; Inall, M.; Jackson, L.C.; Menary, M.B.; Moat, B.I.; Moffa-Sanchez, P.; Oltmanns, M.; Polton, J.A.; Rabe, B.; Robson, J.; Thornalley, D.J.R.

McCarthy, G.D.; Burmeister, K.; Cunningham, S.A.; Düsterhus, A.; Frajka-Williams, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8773-7838; Graham, J.A.; Hodge, K.R.; Holliday, N.P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9733-8002; Inall, M.; Jackson, L.C.; Menary, M.B.; Moat, B.I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8676-7779; Moffa-Sanchez, P.; Oltmanns, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8959-4938; Polton, J.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0131-5250; Rabe, B.; Robson, J.; Thornalley, D.J.R.. 2023 Climate change impacts on ocean circulation relevant to the UK and Ireland. Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership.

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Abstract

Ocean circulation, including ocean currents and systems of ocean currents, such as ocean gyres and the meridional overturning circulation, play a key role in the climate system through the redistribution of heat, freshwater,
carbon, and ecosystem-relevant quantities. Some of these systems of ocean currents are on a large spatial scale and of global climate relevance. For example, the basin-scale Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) plays an important role in the climate of north-west Europe
(Bellomo et al., 2021; McCarthy et al., 2015). Other ocean circulation features are on a smaller spatial scale and still have an important climate relevance. For example, the regional-scale exchanges across the north-west European shelf are large and enable a disproportionately large carbon
transport that plays an important role in the ocean’s sequestration of anthropogenic carbon (Legge et al., 2020). How these systems will change as the climate changes is a key focus of research.

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