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Impact of climate warming on upper layer of the Bering Sea

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Abstract

The impact of climate warming on the upper layer of the Bering Sea is investigated by using a high-resolution coupled global climate model. The model is forced by increasing atmospheric CO2 at a rate of 1% per year until CO2 reaches double its initial value (after 70 years), after which it is held constant. In response to this forcing, the upper layer of the Bering Sea warms by about 2°C in the southeastern shelf and by a little more than 1°C in the western basin. The wintertime ventilation to the permanent thermocline weakens in the western Bering Sea. After CO2 doubling, the southeastern shelf of the Bering Sea becomes almost ice-free in March, and the stratification of the upper layer strengthens in May and June. Changes of physical condition due to the climate warming would impact the pre-condition of spring bio-productivity in the southeastern shelf.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ron Pacanowski, Ronald Stouffer, Michael Winton and Olga Sergienko for their helpful comments and suggestions. The satellite sea-ice concentration data is downloaded from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and we appreciate for their help. We also wish to thank the second reviewer for many constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Hyun-Chul Lee, Thomas L. Delworth, Anthony Rosati, Rong Zhang, Whit G. Anderson, Fanrong Zeng, Charles A. Stock, Keith W. Dixon & Stephen M. Griffies

  2. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Anand Gnanadesikan

  3. High Performance Technology Group of DRC, Reston, VA, USA

    Hyun-Chul Lee

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  1. Hyun-Chul Lee
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  2. Thomas L. Delworth
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  3. Anthony Rosati
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  6. Fanrong Zeng
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  10. Stephen M. Griffies
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Correspondence to Hyun-Chul Lee.

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Lee, HC., Delworth, T.L., Rosati, A. et al. Impact of climate warming on upper layer of the Bering Sea. Clim Dyn 40, 327–340 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1301-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1301-8

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