Q&A

AMOC (part of the larger ocean conveyor belt, Thermohaline Circulation), transports warm, nutrient-rich, salty, surface water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, then moves the cold, nutrient-deficient, fresh(er), dense water back down.

Near the equator, the environment is naturally warmer. This means more water is evaporating in these areas, which causes the ratio of Water:Salt/Nutrients to lower.

If average Water:Salt/Nutrient ratios are normally 3:1, nearer to the equator, we can assume the ratio is closer to 2:1. This means we have a higher concentration of salt and nutrients in warmer waters.

In addition, warmer waters are generally closer to the surface, while colder waters tend to stay deeper in the ocean. AMOC transports the warm water towards the poles. As the water cools, it sinks deeper and deeper, before being carried back towards the equator, where it warms and rises.

AMOC ensures that nutrients, salinity, and heat are spread evenly across the globe. However, global warming and general climate change are causing AMOC to slow at an unprecedented rate. Researchers predict AMOC will completely stop in less than 30 years. Should AMOC collapse, the poles would cool rapidly. Sea levels would drastically rise, heat would be unevenly distributed around the globe, and the poles would receive almost no salt or nutrients. Ecosystems would be negatively affected, much of our current infrastructure would be destroyed, and Earth would deteriorate quickly.

Sclerochronology is the study of physical and chemical growth patterns in hard tissues of organisms. For example, sclerochronology can study mollusks, shells, bones, corals and more.

All organisms that grow by accretion (meaning organisms that deposit layer by layer of minerals, like a shell) are studied in sclerochronology. A sclerochronologist is simply someone who studies sclerochronology!