The Labrador Sea exists between Greenland and eastern Canada where the ocean stirs, allowing for the deep ocean water to bubble up and oxygenate from the atmosphere.
The Labrador Sea acts as the ocean’s lungs: as the ocean’s cool, oxygen-rich surface water sinks, deep water currents, thousands of feet down carry oxygen throughout the Atlantic Ocean, Antarctic waters, and into the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Understanding how oxygen moves through the ocean is now critical because warming water as a result of climate change is expected to make it more difficult for oxygen to reach the depths of the ocean and reach marine species and habitats.