On February 12, the results of the 2025 Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Oceanography and Limnology in China were announced. The achievement “Responses of the Ocean–Atmosphere Circulation System to Rapid Upper-Ocean Warming in a Warming Climate”, with Professor Chen Zhaohui of the MOE Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography at Ocean University of China (OUC) as the first contributor, was selected for the list. This marks the twelfth consecutive year that OUC has had research achievements selected for the list, highlighting OUC’s sustained scientific breakthroughs, accumulated academic achievements, and broad influence in oceanography and limnology in China.
Rapid upper-ocean warming in a warming climate exerts profound impacts on the ocean-atmosphere circulation system and represents a major frontier issue in climate change research. The studies show that rapid upper-ocean warming enhances oceanic stratification, induces an uplift of global subtropical western boundary currents, and drives their onshore intensification. Warming also leads to a shallower mixed layer, slows the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its northward heat transport, enhances the accumulation of multidecadal signals, and amplifies the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability. In addition, rapid upper-ocean warming promotes sea-surface evaporation, increases atmospheric water vapor and effective specific volume, delays the atmospheric circulation response to seasonal solar radiation, and alters atmospheric circulation structure and precipitation patterns. These studies provide new physical insights into the response of the ocean-atmosphere system to global warming and offer scientific support for more accurate assessments of future dynamical and eco-environmental changes. The related results were published in Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, and Geophysical Research Letters in 2025.
Launched in 2013, the Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Oceanography and Limnology in China is an annual selection activity organized by the Chinese Society for Oceanology and Limnology. Candidate achievements are recommended by the Society’s branches, council members, and relevant institutions in the fields of oceanography and limnology, and the final selections are made through voting by the Society’s council members.
