Bering Strait Throughflow and the Thermohaline Circulation

In this study, we employ a global coupled climate model to show that the Bering strait plays an important role in stabilizing the thermohaline circulation. Three experiments are analyzed, a present day control run, and two freshwater hosing runs. Results show that as the thermohaline circulation weakens due to freshwater forcing in the northern North Atlantic, the Bering Strait throughflow weakens, and even reverses its direction, resulting in a reduced Arctic freshwater flux into, or even a northward export of freshwater out of, the northern North Atlantic, thus helping the thermohaline circulation to recover relatively quickly after the end of the freshwater hosing.