A man holding an umbrella watches large waves on the Marina beach as a cargo ship passes after Cyclone Thane hit the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 30 December 2011. Reuters / Babu

By David Fogarty; Editing by Ed Davies
26 April 2012 SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Scientists have detected a clear change in salinity of the world’s oceans and have found that the cycle that drives rainfall and evaporation has intensified more than thought because of global warming. The finding published on Friday helps refine estimates of how different parts of the globe will be affected by increased rainfall or more intense droughts as the planet heats up, affecting crops, water supplies, and flood defenses. Scientists led by Paul Durack of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported clear changes in salinity patterns across the world’s oceans between 1950 and 2000. Oceans cover 71 percent of the planet’s surface and store 97 percent of the world’s water and are therefore the main source of moisture in the atmosphere through evaporation. The global cycle of rainfall and evaporation of water from the land and surface of the ocean comprise the global water cycle, with some areas such as the tropics naturally wetter and others, such as large parts of Australia, the United States or northern Africa, drier. Some ocean regions are saltier, meaning less rainfall and others are fresher, meaning high rainfall, making salinity measurements a good way to measure changes in rainfall patterns. Durack and team, in a study published in the journal Science, found that the water cycle intensified 4 percent from 1950-2000, twice as much as projected by climate models. “These changes suggest that arid regions have become drier and high rainfall regions have become wetter in response to observed global warming,” Durack, a post-doctoral fellow, said in a statement. […] Temperature data shows the planet heated up by 0.5 deg C between 1950-2000. But climate models suggest the world is on track to warm by 3 deg C by the end of the century unless the current growth of greenhouse gas emissions is quickly halted. A warming of that magnitude would mean the water cycle intensifying by up to 24 percent, with wet regions getting wetter and dry regions drier. […]

Sea change in salinity heralds shift in rainfall