Located between Australia and New Zealand, the Tasman Sea is an important but so far neglected component of the global ocean conveyor belt. Now a new study has discovered evidence that this marginal sea in the South Pacific also played an important role in the exchange of water masses between the large ocean basins during the last ice age. These findings will help to refine climate models and improve our understanding of ocean circulation and carbon storage in the sea, an international team of researchers led by geoscientist Dr. Torben Struve from the University of Oldenburg reports in the journal Nature Communications.