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Scientific and societal interest in the relationship between the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and U.S. East Coast sea level has intensified over the past decade, largely due to (1) projected, and potentially ongoing, enhancement of sea level rise associated with AMOC weakening and (2) the potential for observations of U.S. East Coast sea level to inform reconstructions of North Atlantic circulation and climate. These implications have inspired a wealth of model‐ and observation‐based analyses. Here, we review this research, finding consistent support in numerical models for an antiphase relationship between AMOC strength and dynamic sea level. However, simulations exhibit substantial along‐coast and intermodel differences in the amplitude of AMOC‐associated dynamic sea level variability. Observational analyses focusing on shorter (generally less than decadal) timescales show robust relationships between some components of the North Atlantic large‐scale circulation and coastal sea level variability, but the causal relationships between different observational metrics, AMOC, and sea level are often unclear. We highlight the importance of existing and future research seeking to understand relationships between AMOC and its component currents, the role of ageostrophic processes near the coast, and the interplay of local and remote forcing. Such research will help reconcile the results of different numerical simulations with each other and with observations, inform the physical origins of covariability, and reveal the sensitivity of scaling relationships to forcing, timescale, and model representation. This information will, in turn, provide a more complete characterization of uncertainty in relevant relationships, leading to more robust reconstructions and projections.

The oxygenation of Earth's surface environment dramatically altered key biological and geochemical cycles and ultimately ushered in the rise of an ecologically diverse biosphere. However, atmospheric oxygen partial pressures (O) estimates for large swaths of the Precambrian remain intensely debated. Here we evaluate and explore the use of carbonate cerium (Ce) anomalies (Ce/Ce*) as a quantitative atmospheric O proxy and provide estimates of Proterozoic O using marine carbonates from a unique Precambrian carbonate succession-the Paleoproterozoic Pethei Group. In contrast to most previous work, we measure Ce/Ce* on marine carbonate precipitates that formed in situ across a depth gradient, building on previous detailed sedimentology and stratigraphy to constrain the paleo-depth of each sample. Measuring Ce/Ce* across a full platform to basin depth gradient, we found only minor depleted Ce anomalies restricted to the platform and upper slope facies. We combine these results with a Ce oxidation model to provide a quantitative constraint on atmospheric O 1.87 billion years ago (Ga). Our results suggest Paleoproterozoic atmospheric oxygen concentrations were low, near 0.1% of the present atmospheric level. This work provides another crucial line of empirical evidence that atmospheric oxygen levels returned to low concentrations following the Lomagundi Event, and remained low enough for large portions of the Proterozoic to have impacted the ecology of the earliest complex organisms.

In recent years the latitudinal position of the Subtropical Front (STF) has emerged as a key parameter in the global climate. A poleward positioned front is thought to allow a greater salt flux from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean and so drive a stronger Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here the common view that the STF aligns with the zero wind stress curl (WSC) is challenged. Based on the STF climatologies of Orsi et al. (1995), Belkin and Gordon (1996), Graham and De Boer (2013), and on satellite scatterometry winds, we find that the zero WSC contour lies on average ∼10°, ∼8°, and ∼5° poleward of the front for the three climatologies, respectively. The circulation in the region between the Subtropical Gyres and the zero WSC contour is not forced by the WSC but rather by the strong bottom pressure torque that is a result of the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current with the ocean floor topography. The actual control of the position of the STF is crucially dependent on whether the front is regarded as simply a surface water mass boundary or a dynamical front. For the Agulhas Leakage problem, the southern boundary of the so‐called Super Gyre may be the most relevant property but this cannot easily be identified in observations.

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