Focus has been on the Gulf Stream slowdown, but other parts of the ocean could be problematic. The Kuroshio Current is sensitive to global climate change and has the potential to warm greatly with increased CO2 levels. It’s the major western boundary current in the northern Pacific Ocean. Driven by the wind, boundary currents are the ocean’s workhorses, moving heat, salt and gases from the equatorial seas to the middle latitudes. Warmth stems from the surface waters that collect in the western Pacific Ocean along the equator. The Kuroshio Current takes these waters north, past the Japanese coast, and then eastward at the 36°N latitude, where it joins the open Pacific Ocean. There it becomes the Kuroshio Current Extension. Today, these boundary currents are warming two to three times faster than other areas of the ocean. Researchers don’t yet know how these changes will affect the organisms that live there, or local and regional weather and climate patterns. We can only hope it won’t be a problem, but it’s obviously going to make some kind of difference.
Story Source: Binghamton University