Far beneath the surface of the ocean, deep currents act as conveyer belts, channeling heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients1 around the globe. A new study by the University of Pennsylvanias Irina Marinov and Raffaele Bernardello and colleagues from McGill University has found that recent climate change may be acting2 to slow down one of these conveyer belts, with potentially serious consequences for the future of the planets climate.Our observations are showing us that there is less formation of these deep waters near Antarctica, Marinov said. This is worrisome because, if this is the case, were likely going to see less uptake of human produced, or anthropogenic（人为的）, heat and carbon dioxide by the ocean, making this a positive feedback loop for climate change.Marinov is an assistant professor in Penns School of Arts and Sciences Department of Earth and Environmental Science, while Bernardello was a postdoctoral investigator3 in the same department and has just moved to the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom. They collaborated4 with Casimir de Lavergne, Jaime B. Palter and Eric D. Galbraith of McGill University on the study, which was published in Nature Climate Change.Oceanographers have noticed that Antarctic Bottom Waters, a massive current of cold, salty and dense5 water that flows 2,000 meters under the oceans surface from near the Antarctic coast toward the equator has been shrinking in recent decades. This is cause for concern, as the current is believed to hide heat and carbon from the atmosphere. The Southern Ocean takes up approximately 60 percent of the anthropogenic heat produced on Earth and 40 to 50 percent of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide.The Southern Ocean is emerging as being very, very important for regulating climate, Marinov said.
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1 nutrients n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品 参考例句： a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺少 Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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