Warming May Make Atlantic Less Salty

Global warming could, quite literally, bring about a sea change.

Oceanographers have linked temperature changes in Greenland during the last ice age to abrupt changes in ocean salinity levels. Their research, published in the Oct. 5 issue of Nature, finds more evidence that global warming could affect ocean salinity levels in ways that could have far-reaching ramifications.

As part of their study, geologists Howard Spero, of the University of California, Davis, and Matthew Schmidt, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, recorded salinity levels in the North Atlantic Ocean between 45,000 and 60,000 years ago.