The concept of utilizing a large temperature difference (>20 °C) between the surface and deep seawater to generate electricity, known as the ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), provides a renewable solution to fueling our future. However, it remains poorly assessed how the OTEC resources will respond to future climate change. Here, we find that the global OTEC power potential is projected to increase by 46% around the end of this century under a high carbon emission scenario, compared to its present-day level. The augmented OTEC power potential due to the rising sea surface temperature is partially offset by the deep ocean warming. The offsetting effect is more evident in the Atlantic Ocean than Pacific and Indian Oceans. This is mainly attributed to the weakening of mesoscale eddy-induced upward heat transport, suggesting an important role of mesoscale eddies in regulating the response of thermal stratification and OTEC power potential to greenhouse warming.
The response of upwelling in the eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUSs) to anthropogenic climate change has attracted much scientific attention due to its core role in nourishing marine ecosystems. A decade‐old hypothesis suggests that greenhouse warming may intensify upwelling‐favorable winds and subsequently the upwelling in EBUSs, but the impact of greenhouse warming on the seasonal cycle of upwelling remains unknown. Using the recent generation of global climate simulations under a high carbon emission scenario, we show a universal weakening of the upwelling seasonal cycle in the major EBUSs. This is mainly ascribed to the projected weakened seasonal cycle of the upwelling‐favorable winds. In addition, long‐term changes in geostrophic transport exert a nonnegligible contribution to the changes in the upwelling seasonal cycle. Our study suggests that the upwelling in the EBUSs is likely to have a more complicated response to greenhouse warming than previously thought.
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