A continually warming world could alter the way ocean currents regulate huge swaths of the Earth’s climate, making even rainy places like Central America, the Amazon and Indonesia, susceptible to drought. Researchers, in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, studied how ancient rainfall patterns interacted with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a massive system of ocean currents that moves water through the Atlantic Ocean and what that could mean for the future of Earth’s climate. By moving warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, the AMOC plays an important part in regulating the climate by both locking in place the tropical rain belt at the equator and redistributing heat from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere.

Other drought science news:

• Nature: Tropical response to ocean circulation slowdown raises future drought risk
• The Current (UC Santa Barbara): Grasses are spendthrifts, forests are budgeters, in a nuanced account of plant water use