Oxygen variations in the Greenland Sea, 1982-2016

Abstract

Unlike what predictions indicated that dissolved oxygen would decline in the world oceans by the tum of the century, areas of the Nordic Seas have observed the opposite. Oxygen in the Greenland Sea has been increasing in the upper 2000 m for the past decades. Reasons for this increase are thought to be a weakening in stratification caused by inflow of warmer and more satine Arctic Waters that carne from the North Atlantic and strong atmospheric forcing. The deep waters' decrease in oxygen content, however, reveals a lack of ventilation with upper waters and lateral advection with neighboring water masses.