Scientists: Oceans’ Roles in Climate Change Nonnegligible

Scientists in China recently found through multiscale investigation that oceans are playing a role that cannot be ignored in global climate change.

The research, carried out by CHEN Yaning and his colleagues from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and dipole mode index (DMI) of the Indian Ocean have important impacts on the temperature fluctuation in the arid region of Northwest China.

The result of the study was published on the recent issue of Theoretical and Applied Climatology entitled “Multiscale evolution of surface air temperature in the arid region of Northwest China and its linkages to ocean oscillations”.

The earth is getting warmer and warmer with wide-ranging impacts, from rising sea levels, to melting snow and ice, to more drought and extreme rainfall. As a delicate ecosystem in the mid-latitude region of the northern hemisphere with obvious temperature rise, the arid region of Northwest China has been the focus of scientists’ attention.

CHEN and his team investigated the multiscale evolution of temperature variability in the arid region of Northwest China from 1901 to 2013.

“The multiscale evolution of the warming is studied to better understand the spatial and temporal variation patterns of temperature,” said CHEN.

Scientists found that the AMO and PDO had significant impacts on the temperature fluctuation in this region at an interdecadal scale. Meanwhile, DMI had a more important role in warming at the annual scale.

The finding of the research may help better understand the temperature changes in the arid region of Northwest China in the context of global warming.