The BBC machine has kicked out another report on Global Warming, this time surrounding the Ice sheets. See below

Freshwater pouring into northern oceans is slowly turning high-latitude waters less salty.

Shrinking ice sheets and melting glaciers are partly responsible for the freshening effect, a review in the journal Science has confirmed.

If salinity levels continue to drop, dramatic changes to the North Atlantic currents could occur.

But more work is needed to be sure that rising global temperatures are to blame, say the authors.

"For the last 50 years, oceanographers have been cruising seas at northern latitudes taking vertical profiles of salinity, and they have observed gradual declines," said lead author Bruce Peterson, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, US.

"The salt water, although still very salty, is getting fresher."

Warm shallows, cold depths

The volume of fresh water is a good match for the amount which rivers, precipitation, sea-ice melt and glacier melt are producing. Run-off from these sources must be creating the dilution effect, the researchers conclude.

The measurements are taken from the Nordic seas and Atlantic Sub-polar Basins.

Cold water from the Arctic is usually exchanged for warm water from the tropics in a self-propelling cycle.

In the north, the warm water arriving via surface currents sinks and flows back to warmer climes through the deep ocean. Because fresher water is less dense, it does not sink so far as salty water would at the same temperature.

If the trend continues, the changes to this current system may be significant. "It is expected that the North Atlantic circulation will slow down," said Professor Peterson.

Global warming or not?

But how likely is the trend to continue? It is not yet possible to be sure to what extent global warming can be blamed for the changes, say the authors.

Fluctuating salinity could potentially result from a normal periodical weather pattern known as the North Atlantic Oscillation index. If this index is high, seas in the north are less salty than average.

Until 1995, the changes were in line with what would be expected under the climatic conditions; but when the index changed recently, becoming low or neutral, the proportion of fresh water did not go down accordingly in some places.

So the greater bulk of fresh water running into the sea is probably - at least in part - due to rising global temperatures. "I suspect parts of it are due to global warming. It's a difficult quandary," said Professor Peterson.

If salt levels continue to decline, and currents change, the implications for aquatic ecosystems would be dramatic.

"The organisms in the oceans are affected by the distribution of sea ice, and by temperatures and salinity fields, and all of these would change," the author explained.

"Changes in these currents would have tremendous impact for fisheries and other species important to man."





From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5283570.stm


My own view is Sea less saline, freezes at higher temperature. Sea ice increases.

More sea ice. Salinity increases. Thermohaline sinking starts to increase again.

Nothing is static in natural world. Change is the norm. Not all feedbacks have negative consequences, despite what the AGW machine would have one believe.

DISCUSS

One thing for sure is that scientists who have spent their lives researching the subject understand far more about it than does the casual lay scientist.

less salty?
do yer want me to piss in the sea more or summat...?!

it's cold enough for polar bears in the winter up there, I tell yers.

Too bloody cold ... penguins won't go anywhere near it!

changes in the environment would favour the proliferation of previously less-successful microorganisms. So the food chain would alter accordingly.
There, I made that up without looking.

might be less salty but still full of crap
when the east wind blows i can pick up any matter of item from your toilet in my garden

i shall be returning said items
especially those with the knot in both ends

i know who you are

my toilet?
your garden???

poor auld PP!!!!!

i knew it was you
all i needed was the confession
it was the double knot that threw you ?

Just to warn you mate you may need a gas mask or two as a few more items are coming your way.Two days waste products etc etc just been flushed.

ok the wind is favourable
do you ever check your pms

Just done so.

again please

The protestors outside Drax today make me laugh, we could turn off all our power stations, live in the dark, wear dungarees made from old bark, wash in streams and generally wander round talking eco babble, drinking goats piss and eating lentils, but the biggest pooluters in the far east and the states will dwarf us and carry merrily on.
MEANWHILE,...when the protest is over, then eco warriors jump into their Volvos, drive home to their detached homes and log onto their eco rant web sites and never wonder where the electricity comes from that makes their lives so easy.
PS TAKING LITTLE KIDS TO THESE DEMOS IS NOT ON.

thank goodness for a sensible post on the matter, I thought my thread was being hijacked.

Those Eco warrior people are in it for the fun of the protest, not the cause. Largely as most of these people don't fully understand the complexities involved and listen to the beeb too much. They are the same people who got the hunt banned, that march through the streets of London about poor old murdering Iraq and watch Darlo every week.

GET A JOB

These people are in employment but is it a job...? They usually 'co-ordinate' someth ing, what...?, no one knows. Fact is they're usually people who are well off, or the spoilt offspring of the same people trying to prove f*** knows what to the world. Have they ever had a real crisis in their lives.... probably not, but they love to tell you how to put yours in order.

you don't mean...middle class liberals desperately searching for a cause in life to ease their conscience because of their cosy lifestyle? Surely not...............