研究顯示，北大西洋有道流入北極海的洋流，水溫至少是2000年來的新高，顯示全球暖化可能讓北極在夏天成為無冰地帶。
科學家表示，最近幾個夏天，流經格陵蘭（Greenland）和挪威群島斯瓦巴島（Svalbard）之間的墨西哥灣流（Gulf Stream）北端，平均水溫為攝氏6度，高於古羅馬時代或中世紀時期的自然最高溫。
研究領導人、德國梅因斯科學暨人文學院（Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literaturein Mainz）的史匹哈根（Robert Spielhagen）告訴路透：「這個溫度比過去2000年都高。」這份研究刊登於自然（Science）期刊。
根據弗拉姆海峽（Fram Strait）沉積物裡的微生物重建分析，這道洋流的夏天平均溫度，在1890-2007年間為攝氏5.2度，在之前的1900年間是攝氏3.4度。
這項發現再次顯示，人類的活動正加速現代暖化。中央社（2011/01/28 ）
原文摘要 Abstract:
Science 28 January 2011 (Vol. 331 no. 6016 pp. 450-453)
Title:
Enhanced Modern Heat Transfer to the Arctic by Warm Atlantic Water
Author:
Robert F. Spielhagen et al., E-mail: rspielhagen@ifm-geomar.de

The Arctic is responding more rapidly to global warming than most other areas on our planet. Northward-flowing Atlantic Water is the major means of heat advection toward the Arctic and strongly affects the sea ice distribution. Records of its natural variability are critical for the understanding of feedback mechanisms and the future of the Arctic climate system, but continuous historical records reach back only ~150 years. Here, we present a multidecadal-scale record of ocean temperature variations during the past 2000 years, derived from marine sediments off Western Svalbard (79°N). We find that early–21st-century temperatures of Atlantic Water entering the Arctic Ocean are unprecedented over the past 2000 years and are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming.
(圖說: Bathymetric map of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and
Arctic Ocean (base map: www.ibcao.org).
White shading marks average summer sea ice cover.  White arrows mark ice drift directions. Red arrows mark transport path of warm Atlantic Water entering the Arctic where it submerges under the cold, ice-covered surface layer.
Yellow spot marks coring site MSM5/5-712.  Credit: Robert Spielhagen (IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel)
延伸閱讀1:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110127141659.htm
延伸閱讀2: