Hypothesis

Guest

Dear Amy and Max,
Based on your research so far, what is your hypothesis?

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 84

Hi,

We're very interested in how global warming will impact arctic river discharge, ocean circulation, and global climate. We hypothesize that precipitation will increase as the Earth warms, and consequently that arctic river discharge will increase. As more river water flows into the Arctic Ocean, the salinity of the ocean will change which can cause ocean circulation patterns to change. And this can cause changes in climate (see some of the other posts which discuss possible changes to Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation as a consequence of more freshwater entering the Arctic Ocean). We also have many other hypotheses about various aspects of the project - for example, we hypothesize that the concentrations of various chemicals in the river water will change over the course of a year and with discharge, and that many of the chemicals in the river water will be useful for tracing the river water as it circulates in the Arctic Ocean.

Thanks for the question,

Max and Amy