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Peer-reviewedCC BYCommunications Earth & Environment

Anthropogenic radionuclides as tracers of climate change in the Pacific Ocean

  • Pavel P. Povinec1
  • Katsumi Hirose2
  • Gi Hoon Hong3
  • Xiaolin Hou4
  • Yayoi Inomata5
  • Jakub Kaizer1
  • Daisuke Tsumune6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Comenius University, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Bratislava, Slovakia
  2. 2Laboratory for Environmental Research at Mount Fuji, Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Japan
  3. 3East China Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, Shanghai, China
  4. 4Chinese Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of Loess Sciences, Xi’an AMS Center, Institute of Earth Environment, Xi’an, China
  5. 5Kanazawa University, Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa, Japan
  6. 6University of Tsukuba, Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan
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Abstract

Anthropogenic radionuclides introduced into the ocean through atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, nuclear accidents, and controlled releases from nuclear facilities are powerful tracers of ocean circulation. Because their input histories are temporally well constrained, they provide time markers that can be used to quantify water-mass transport, mixing, and ventilation, processes that regulate ocean heat and carbon uptake. The Pacific Ocean, the largest and one of the most intensively sampled basins, provides an exceptional setting for applying radionuclide tracers to climate-relevant ocean dynamics studies. Here, we synthesize how tritium, cesium-137, and plutonium isotopes have been used, together with ocean general circulation and particle-scavenging models, to constrain basin-scale transport, inter-basin exchange among the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, and multidecadal changes in vertical mixing and eddy activity associated with a warming and increasingly stratified upper ocean.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{povinec2026anthropogenic,
  title = {{Anthropogenic radionuclides as tracers of climate change in the Pacific Ocean}},
  author = {Pavel P. Povinec and Katsumi Hirose and Gi Hoon Hong and Xiaolin Hou and Yayoi Inomata and Jakub Kaizer and Daisuke Tsumune},
  journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-03639-0},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03639-0},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Anthropogenic radionuclides as tracers of climate change in the Pacific Ocean
AU  - Pavel P. Povinec
AU  - Katsumi Hirose
AU  - Gi Hoon Hong
AU  - Xiaolin Hou
AU  - Yayoi Inomata
AU  - Jakub Kaizer
AU  - Daisuke Tsumune
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/18
JO  - Communications Earth & Environment
DO  - 10.1038/s43247-026-03639-0
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03639-0
AB  - Anthropogenic radionuclides introduced into the ocean through atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, nuclear accidents, and controlled releases from nuclear facilities are powerful tracers of ocean circulation. Because their input histories are temporally well constrained, they provide time markers that can be used to quantify water-mass transport, mixing, and ventilation, processes that regulate ocean heat and carbon uptake. The Pacific Ocean, the largest and one of the most intensively sampled basins, provides an exceptional setting for applying radionuclide tracers to climate-relevant ocean dynamics studies. Here, we synthesize how tritium, cesium-137, and plutonium isotopes have been used, together with ocean general circulation and particle-scavenging models, to constrain basin-scale transport, inter-basin exchange among the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, and multidecadal changes in vertical mixing and eddy activity associated with a warming and increasingly stratified upper ocean.
SN  - 2662-4435
ER  -