The North Atlantic was a key locus for circulation-driven abrupt climate change in the past and could
play a similar role in the future. Abrupt cold reversals, including the 8.2 ka event, punctuated the
otherwise warm early Holocene in the North Atlantic region and serve as useful paleo examples of rapid
climate change. In this work, we assess the cryospheric response to early Holocene climate history on
Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, using cosmogenic radionuclide dating of moraines. We present 39 new 10Be
ages from four sets of multi-crested early Holocene moraines deposited by cirque glaciers and ice cap
outlet glaciers, as well as erratic boulders along adjacent fiords to constrain the timing of regional
deglaciation. The age of one moraine is additionally constrained by in situ 14C measurements, which
confirm 10Be inheritance in some samples. All four moraines were deposited between ~9.2 and 8.0 ka,
and their average ages coincide with abrupt coolings at 9.3 and 8.2 ka that are recorded in Greenland ice
cores. Freshwater delivery to the North Atlantic that reduced the flux of warm Atlantic water into Baffin
Bay may explain brief intervals of glacier advance, although moraine formation cannot be definitively
tied to centennial-scale cold reversals. We thus explore other possible contributing factors, including ice
dynamics related to retreat of Laurentide Ice Sheet outlet glaciers. Using a numerical glacier model, we
show that the debuttressing effect of trunk valley deglaciation may have contributed to these morainebuilding
events. These new age constraints and process insights highlight the complex behavior of the
cryosphere during regional deglaciation and suggest that multiple abrupt cold reversalsdas well as
deglacial ice dynamicsdlikely played a role in early Holocene moraine formation on Baffin Island.
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Arctic sea ice export as a driver of deglacial climate
A widespread theory in paleoclimatology suggests that changes in freshwater discharge to the Nordic (Greenland, Norwegian, and Icelandic) Seas from ice sheets and proglacial lakes over North America played a role in triggering episodes of abrupt climate change during deglaciation (21–8 ka) by slowing the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation (AMOC). Yet, proving this link has been problematic, as climate models are unable to produce centennial-to-millennial–length reductions in overturning from short-lived outburst floods, while periods of iceberg discharge during Heinrich Event 1 (ca. 16 ka) may have occurred after the climate had already begun to cool. Here, results from a series of numerical model experiments are presented to show that prior to deglaciation, sea ice could have become tens of meters thick over large parts of the Arctic Basin, forming an enormous reservoir of freshwater independent from terrestrial sources. Our model then shows that deglacial sea-level rise, changes in atmospheric circulation, and terrestrial outburst floods caused this ice to be exported through Fram Strait, where its subsequent melt freshened the Nordic Seas enough to weaken the AMOC. Given that both the volume of ice stored in the Arctic Basin and the magnitude of the simulated export events exceed estimates of the volumes and fluxes of meltwater periodically discharged from proglacial Lake Agassiz, our results show that non-terrestrial freshwater sources played an important role in causing past abrupt climate change.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1417667
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10139994
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geology
- ISSN:
- 0091-7613
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Tropical hydroclimatic events , characterized by extreme regional rainfall anomalies, were a recurrent feature of marine isotope stages 2–4 and involved some of the most abrupt and dramatic climatic changes in the late Quaternary. These anomalies were pervasive throughout the tropics and resulted from the southward displacement of the Hadley circulation and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and its associated convective rainfall, modulated by regional factors. Lake sediments, stalagmites, and offshore marine sediments that integrate inland continental conditions provide a comprehensive record of these changes over the past ∼70,000 yr. Vast areas experienced severe drought while other areas recorded greatly increased rainfall. Within the uncertainties of dating, these tropical rainfall anomalies occurred very close in time (±102–103 yr) to the deposition of North Atlantic ice‐rafted debris (IRD) that defines Heinrich events (HEs). The IRD record is a good proxy for the amount and distribution of additional freshwater forcing which was necessary to bring about a drastic reduction in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) strength during each HE. As a consequence of this reduction in AMOC and an abrupt expansion in the area of sea‐ice, cooling of the North Atlantic and adjacent continents took place, with a rapid atmospheric response involving the southward displacement of the ITCZ and associated rainfall belts. The climatic consequences of this large‐scale change in the Hadley circulation, modulated by regional factors, is clearly recorded throughout the tropics as a series of abrupt and extreme hydroclimatic events. Some of the physical mechanisms that may have played a role in those changes are discussed. -
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Abstract The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key mechanism in the climate system, delivers warm and salty waters from the subtropical gyre to the subpolar gyre and Nordic Seas, where they are transformed into denser waters flowing southward in the lower AMOC limb. The prevailing hypothesis is that dense waters formed in the Labrador and Nordic Seas are the sources for the AMOC lower limb. However, recent observations reveal that convection in the Labrador Sea contributes minimally to the total overturning of the subpolar gyre. In this study, we show that the AMOC is instead primarily composed of waters formed in the Nordic Seas and Irminger and Iceland basins. A first direct estimate of heat and freshwater fluxes over these basins demonstrates that buoyancy forcing during the winter months can almost wholly account for the dense waters of the subpolar North Atlantic that are exported as part of the AMOC.
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Abstract This paper describes the new Regional Arctic Ocean/sea ice Reanalysis (RARE) with a domain that spans a subpolar/polar cap poleward of 45°N. Sequential data assimilation constrains temperature and salinity using World Ocean Database profiles as well as in situ and satellite SST, and PIOMAS sea ice thickness estimates. The 41-yr (1980–2020) RARE1.15.2 reanalysis with resolution varying between 2 and 5 km horizontally and 1–10 m vertically in the upper 100 m is examined. To explore the impact of resolution RARE1.15.2 is compared to a coarser-resolution SODA3.15.2, which uses the same modeling and data assimilation system. Improving resolution in the reanalysis system improves agreement with observations. It produces stronger more compact currents, enhances eddy kinetic energy, and strengthens along-isopycnal heat and salt transports, but reduces vertical exchanges and thus strengthens upper ocean haline stratification. RARE1.15.2 and SODA3.15.2 are also compared to the Hadley Center EN4.2.2 statistical objective analysis. In regions of reasonable data coverage such as the Nordic seas the three products produce similar time-mean distributions of temperature and salinity. But in regions of poor coverage and in regions where the coverage changes in time EN4.2.2 suffers more from those inhomogeneities. Finally, the impact on the Arctic of interannual temperature fluctuations in the subpolar gyres on the Arctic Ocean is compared. The influence of the subpolar North Pacific is limited to a region surrounding Bering Strait. The influence of the subpolar North Atlantic, in contrast, spreads throughout the Nordic seas and Barents Sea in all three products within two years.
Significance Statement The Arctic Ocean/sea ice system plays crucial roles in climate variability and change by controlling the northern end of the oceanic overturning circulation, the equator to pole air pressure gradient, and Earth’s energy balance. Yet the historical ocean observation set is sparse and inhomogeneous, while ocean dynamics has challengingly fine horizontal and vertical scales. This paper introduces a new Regional Arctic Ocean/sea ice Reanalysis (RARE) whose goal is to use the combined constraints of mesoscale ocean dynamics, historical observations, surface meteorology, and continental runoff in a data assimilation framework to reconstruct historical variability. RARE is used to produce a 41-yr ocean/sea ice reanalysis 1980–2020 whose results are described here.
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null (Ed.)Abstract This study compares the impacts of Arctic sea ice decline on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in two configurations of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) with different horizontal resolution. In a suite of model experiments we impose radiative imbalance at the ice surface, replicating a loss of sea ice cover comparable to the observed during 1979-2014, and find dramatic differences in the AMOC response between the two models. In the lower-resolution configuration, the AMOC weakens by about one third over the first 100 years, approaching a new quasi-equilibrium. By contrast, in the higher-resolution configuration, the AMOC weakens by ~10% during the first 20-30 years followed by a full recovery driven by invigorated deep water formation in the Labrador Sea and adjacent regions. We investigate these differences using a diagnostic AMOC stability indicator, which reflects the AMOC freshwater transport in and out of the basin and hence the strength of the basin-scale salt-advection feedback. This indicator suggests that the AMOC in the lower-resolution model is less stable and more sensitive to surface perturbations, as confirmed by hosing experiments mimicking Arctic freshening due to sea ice decline. Differences between the models’ mean states, including the Atlantic mean surface freshwater fluxes, control the differences in AMOC stability. Our results demonstrate that the AMOC stability indicator is indeed useful for evaluating AMOC sensitivity to perturbations. Finally, we emphasize that, despite the differences in the long-term adjustment, both models simulate a multi-decadal AMOC weakening caused by Arctic sea ice decline, relevant to climate change.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1130/G47016.1
