@article{e2a25c5880fd44bfa25af6358b876ae0,
title = "The Equatorial Undercurrent and the Oxygen Minimum Zone in the Pacific",
abstract = "Warming-driven expansion of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the equatorial Pacific would bring very low oxygen waters closer to the ocean surface and possibly impact global carbon/nutrient cycles and local ecosystems. Global coarse Earth System Models (ESMs) show, however, disparate trends that poorly constrain these future changes in the upper OMZ. Using an ESM with a high-resolution ocean (1/10°), we show that a realistic representation of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) dynamics is crucial to represent the upper OMZ structure and its temporal variability. We demonstrate that coarser ESMs commonly misrepresent the EUC, leading to an unrealistic “tilt” of the OMZ (e.g., shallowing toward the east) and an exaggerated sensitivity to EUC changes overwhelming other important processes like diffusion and biology. This shortcoming compromises the ability to reproduce the OMZ variability and could explain the disparate trends in ESMs projections.",
keywords = "CMIP, Equatorial Undercurrent, equatorial Pacific, high-resolution climate Models, ocean biogeochemistry, oxygen minimum zone",
author = "Busecke, {Julius J.M.} and Laure Resplandy and Dunne, {John P.}",
note = "Funding Information: Code and data to reproduce the results of this study are provided in Zenodo archives (https://zenodo.org/record/ 3236505, https://zenodo.org/record/ 2648855). We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups (Table S1 in the supporting information.) for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the U.S. Department of Energy's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. We thank Graeme McGilchrist, Xiao Liu, Jong-Yeon Park, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments which greatly improved the manuscript. This research was funded under the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate Science agreement NA14OAR4320106. Funding Information: Code and data to reproduce the results of this study are provided in Zenodo archives (https://zenodo.org/record/3236505, https://zenodo.org/record/2648855). We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups (Table S1 in the supporting information.) for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the U.S. Department of Energy's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. We thank Graeme McGilchrist, Xiao Liu, Jong-Yeon Park, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments which greatly improved the manuscript. This research was funded under the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate Science agreement NA14OAR4320106. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.",
year = "2019",
month = jun,
day = "28",
doi = "10.1029/2019GL082692",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "46",
pages = "6716--6725",
journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",
issn = "0094-8276",
publisher = "American Geophysical Union",
number = "12",
}