Deep-Sea Research II 49 (2002) 4791–4806 Long-term temperature trends in the deep waters of the

Warming of the deep water in the Weddell Sea has important implications for Antarctic bottom water formation, melting of pack ice, and the regional ocean–atmosphere heat transfer. In order to evaluate warming trends in the Weddell Sea, a historical data set encompassing CTD and bottle data from 1912 to 2000 was analyzed for temporal trends in the deep water masses: warm deep water (WDW) and Weddell Sea deep water (WSDW). The coldest WDW temperatures were primarily associated with the Weddell Polynya of the mid-1970s. Subsequent warming occurred at a rate of B0.01270.0071Cyr1 from the 1970s to 1990s. This warming was comparable to the global, average surface water warming observed by Levitus et al. (Science 287 (2000) 2225), to the warming of th