Tasman Sea: a global warming hot spot

Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents—including the East Australian Current—polewards beyond their known boundaries. The hotspots have formed alongside ocean currents that wash the east coast of the major continents and their warming proceeds at a rate far exceeding the average rate of ocean surface warming, according to an international science team, including an Australian. The authors say that while the finding has local ecological implications in the region surrounding the hotspots, the major influence is upon the ocean’s ability to take up heat and carbon from the atmosphere.

Dr Wenju Cai, CSIRO

Nature Climate Change; http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Media/Warming-in-the-Tasman-Sea-a-global-warming-hot-spot.aspx