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Science 29 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5599, pp. 1724 - 1725
DOI: 10.1126/science.1079238
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Perspectives

OCEANOGRAPHY:
Oceanic Salt Switch

Ed Boyle

Salinity and temperature, the two determinants of the density of ocean waters, play an important role in ocean circulation. In today's ocean, the saltiest deep waters derive from the northern North Atlantic. But as Boyle explains in his Perspective, the situation was very different during the last glaciation. He highlights the report by Adkins et al., who show that the saltiest waters then formed in the Southern Ocean. The ocean circulation must thus differ substantially between glacial and interglacial periods.

The author is in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. E-mail: eaboyle{at}mit.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)