After reviewing several papers examining Arctic Ocean relationship with Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) there is evidence of a temporary slowdown. However, a collapse is not imminent.
One possibility for the slight slowdown: wind forcing changes of the West Norwegian Sea opening up a second channel overflow supplying the Faroe Bank Channel Overflow.
"To investigate more closely the pathways excited by the different atmospheric forcing, we employ backward trajectory simulations (see Methods section) to identify the variable modeled pathways feeding the FBCO. To ensure that we are only tracing the densest overflow water, we only track water particles colder than 2 °C and only do so until they reach a latitudinal section corresponding to ~ 65°N (Fig. 4). Backtracking water for several years is important, not only to demonstrate the robustness of the variable pathways, but also to show the significant role a multiyear atmospheric forcing regime plays in modulating the modeled FBCO pathways. In this regard, it is instructive to trace these deep dense waters during the early 1990s and 2000s (Supplementary Fig. 3), as these are periods with particularly strong and weak wind forcing and hence spin-up and spin-down of the top-to-bottom basin circulation in the Norwegian Sea21 (Fig. 3), respectively. Figure 4a demonstrates that when the atmospheric forcing, and hence the basin circulation in the Norwegian Sea is anomalously cyclonic (early 1990s), the FBCO is weaker than normal and the source of the deep water is predominantly via the western approach, the short or direct path around the Faroe Plateau into the FSC. In contrast, when the atmospheric circulation is in an anticyclonic regime (early 2000s), the FBCO is stronger than average and the path is predominantly along the eastern Norwegian Basin (Fig. 4b), the long or indirect path into the FSC. Thus, fluid is deflected from north of the Faroes over to the Norwegian slope before turning south into the FSC. There is, however, a subtle difference between the two periods: while the trajectories during the early 1990s seem to be more constrained to shallower depths, those pertaining to the early 2000s appear to trace deeper isobaths and hence a second path is opened up with water crossing from north of the Faroes over to the Norwegian slope."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17426-8A second possibility: Increased eddy activity to dissipate excess energy accumulated from melting Arctic Sea ice and Beaufort Gyre freshwater doming since 2007.
"Implications for the changing Arctic
Arctic sea ice loss is projected to continue over the coming decades, with climate models predicting seasonally ice-free conditions (<106 km2) as early as the 2020s, but more likely towards the middle of the century7,32. Previous hypotheses suggested that the Arctic atmospheric circulation oscillates between predominantly cyclonic and anticyclonic circulation regimes over timescales of 5–7 years1, however, the Arctic has been in an anticyclonic regime since the late 1990s, coinciding with a period of increasing freshwater storage9. Were the Arctic to switch back to predominantly cyclonic atmospheric circulation we might expect a dissipation of mechanical energy by the atmosphere in summer and autumn months, as well as weaker (or reversed) net Ekman pumping and release of freshwater. Here, the results from 2012 provide a useful test case in contrast to the extreme of 2007. In 2012, as in 2007, there was an almost complete loss of sea ice in the BG region (Fig. 4), the cyclonic atmospheric circulation conditions actually dissipated energy in the summer (Fig. 2a) and were more favorable for upwelling (Fig. 2e) causing a (temporary) reduction in FWC (Fig. 2d). The difference in the BG response during extreme ice loss in 2012 compared to 2007 highlights the important interplay between atmospheric circulation and sea ice conditions that controls the state of the BG. A similar reversal of the prevailing anticyclonic atmospheric circulation was observed in wintertime 2016–17. This event was linked to increased intrusions of Atlantic cyclones due to thin ice in the Barents Sea region (and associated thermal anomalies), and a shift in the polar vortex33. Increased intrusions of cyclones into the western Arctic and further reversals in the wintertime atmospheric circulation due to declining sea ice in the Barents Sea is an intriguing, but highly uncertain, hypothesis34. These events suggest that a switch to more cyclonic circulation conditions would lead to a period of freshwater release and a spin down of the BG. However, regardless of the prevailing atmospheric circulation regime, we expect the Arctic Ocean to become more sensitive to atmospheric forcing as the sea ice cover continues to decline under climate change.
Our results show that as the BG region becomes increasingly ice-free earlier in summer and later into October and November, the current anticyclonic atmospheric circulation regime will do significantly more work on the ocean surface currents. Meanwhile, year-round dissipation of energy underneath sea ice will also increase as currents speed up (Fig. 2a, b), but our results suggest that this will not completely account for increased direct atmosphere-ocean energy input. Under this scenario, the Arctic Ocean will continue to become more energetic, and dissipation of additional energy and freshwater stabilization by eddies will be increasingly important. These are critical processes for the accurate representation of the BG system in models. However, currently, only the highest resolution numerical models are eddy-resolving in the Arctic Ocean, where the radius of deformation is 10–15 km in the deep basins and as small as 1 km in the shelf seas. Coupled climate models leave these important dissipative processes unresolved and it is unclear whether commonly used parameterizations of eddies, tuned for the global ocean, are representative in the Arctic. Increases in the eddy diffusivity and increased mixing by eddy activity in a more energetic Arctic Ocean is also expected to enhance vertical transport of warm Atlantic water, with consequences for sea ice growth and mixing of biogeochemical tracers.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14449-zA third possibility: High northern latitude subsurface water temperatures are out of phase with the temperature evolution observed in Antarctica. There is an approximate 200 year lag between Greenland and Antarctic temperatures. Arctic Sea Ice bottom melting started approximately 1970? With so much CO2 entering the atmosphere it is easy to see a return to cooler conditions soon but not cold conditions like the stadials.
Significance
Paleoclimatic proxy records from Greenland ice cores show that the last glacial interval was punctuated by abrupt climatic transitions called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. These events are characterized by temperature increases over Greenland of up to 15°
C within a few decades. The cause of these transitions and their out-of-phase relationship with corresponding records from Antarctica remains unclear. Based on earlier hypotheses, we propose a model focusing on interactions between ice shelves, sea ice, and ocean currents to explain DO events in Greenland and their Antarctic counterparts. Our model reproduces the main features of the observations. Our study provides a potential explanation of DO events and could help assess more accurately the risk of abrupt climatic transitions in the future.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/47/E11005Finally, responsible science takes time, energy and money. Recognizing knowledge gaps and filling them is a good first start.
Floats in particular could help address one area of considerable interest, namely, the degree to which fresh water from the Arctic and Greenland Sea can mix with and dilute warm, saline water from the Atlantic. Such dilution could suppress deep temperature- and density-driven convection, thus weakening or shutting down the overturning in the Nordic Seas and, by extension, the deepest component of the AMOC.
https://eos.org/science-updates/rethinking-oceanic-overturning-in-the-nordic-seas 
