New research suggests the strength of the Florida Current, which forms the beginning of the Gulf Stream, has weakened considerably over the last century.

The findings, published Friday in the journal Nature Climate Change, corroborate the predictions of several models that suggest the Gulf Stream has slowed over the last several decades.

The Florida Current is a thermal ocean current that flows from west to east around the tip of Florida, joining the Gulf Stream off Florida's east coast.

Scientists have been tracking the strength of the Florida Current since the early 1980s -- not long enough to identify multi-decadal or centennial trends.

To better understand the current's historical changes, Christopher Piecuch, researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, decided to study the relationship between coastal sea level and the strength of near-shore currents.

While researchers have only been measuring the Florida Current for a few decades, scientists have been recording sea level data since the early 1900s. Piecuch was able to use the data to predict historic changes in the strength of near-shore currents.

"In the ocean, almost everything is connected," Christopher Piecuch, sole author of the new study, said in a news release. "We can use those connections to look at things in the past or far from shore, giving us a more complete view of the ocean and how it changes across space and time."

The statistical analysis performed by Piecuch showed the Florida Current and Gulf Stream are the weakest they've been during the last 110 years.

The findings are in agreement with ocean current models that suggest climate change has caused a slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, of which the Gulf Stream is a part.

Piecuch said he hopes his research will help other scientists use coastal current data to study changes in bigger currents like the Gulf Stream.

"If we can monitor something over the horizon by making measurements from shore, then that's a win for science and potentially for society," he said.

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