Articles | Volume 12, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-543-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-543-2016
Research article
 | 
29 Feb 2016
Research article |  | 29 Feb 2016

The effect of low ancient greenhouse climate temperature gradients on the ocean's overturning circulation

Willem P. Sijp and Matthew H. England

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Short summary
The polar warmth of the greenhouse climates in the Earth's past represents a fundamentally different climate state to that of today, with a strongly reduced temperature difference between the Equator and the poles. It is commonly thought that this would lead to a more quiescent ocean, with much reduced ventilation of the abyss. Surprisingly, using a Cretaceous cimate model, we find that ocean overturning is not weaker under a reduced temperature gradient arising from amplified polar heat.