ABRUPT CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE TROPICS - THE INFLUENCE OF ATLANTIC-OCEAN CIRCULATION

Several prolonged droughts in the Sahel and tropical Mexico during the past 14,000 years were coincident with large injections of fresh water into the northern North Atlantic Ocean. The link between these phenomena lies in the thermohaline circulation of the oceans: input of fresh water decreases salinity leading to reduced North Atlantic Deep Water formation and anomalies of sea surface temperature of the kind associated with decreased rainfall in the northern tropics. Ice-sheet disintegration, the most important source of fresh-water input to the oceans, should therefore be considered explicitly in models of past and future climate. © 1990 Nature Publishing Group.