Amazonia Directly Influenced by Atlantic Ocean Temperature Swings

Researchers at the Open University / Florida Institute of Technology say that they've recently uncovered evidence suggesting that the temperature swing patterns visible in the Atlantic Ocean have a direct influence on the climate of the western Amazonia.

Details of how this correlation works were published in this week’s issue of the top journal Nature Geoscience, in a paper entitled “North Atlantic forcing of Amazonian precipitation during the last ice age,” AlphaGalileo reports.

Currently, computer models of how Amazonia will change in the future indicate that its rainforests will be reduced to nothing more than shrubby grasslands by 2050-2080. Experts are now very interested in learning the role that the Atlantic Ocean will play in this shift.

The new study was supported by the National Geographic Society, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Open University, and the Natural Environment Research Council.