So how can the ocean influence climate?
Short
time scales (less than a few years)
The contrast in the heat capacity of the land and
ocean has a profound effect on our climate’s seasonality and its response to
increasing greenhouse gases.
The ocean plays a critical role in the El Niño
phenomenon, a periodic climate oscillation centered in the equatorial Pacific, and a
topic we will come to later on in the course.
Long
time scales (greater than a few years)
Changes in the global thermohaline circulation, which
warms the North Atlantic, can affect temperatures in that region.
Long-term changes in sea ice coverage can affect the
planet’s energy balance.
Changes in ocean ecosystems because of ocean
circulation changes probably have a large influence on climate on time scales of
hundreds to thousands of years.
Ocean ecosystems help regulate CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, and hence the
greenhouse effect.