| 1. |
- Coxall, Helen K., et al.
(författare)
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Export of nutrient rich Northern Component Water preceded early Oligocene Antarctic glaciation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Geoscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 11:3, s. 190-196
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The onset of the North Atlantic Deep Water formation is thought to have coincided with Antarctic ice-sheet growth about 34 million years ago (Ma). However, this timing is debated, in part due to questions over the geochemical signature of the ancient Northern Component Water (NCW) formed in the deep North Atlantic. Here we present detailed geochemical records from North Atlantic sediment cores located close to sites of deep-water formation. We find that prior to 36 Ma, the northwestern Atlantic was stratified, with nutrient-rich, low-salinity bottom waters. This restricted basin transitioned into a conduit for NCW that began flowing southwards approximately one million years before the initial Antarctic glaciation. The probable trigger was tectonic adjustments in subarctic seas that enabled an increased exchange across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The increasing surface salinity and density strengthened the production of NCW. The late Eocene deep-water mass differed in its carbon isotopic signature from modern values as a result of the leakage of fossil carbon from the Arctic Ocean. Export of this nutrient-laden water provided a transient pulse of CO2 to the Earth system, which perhaps caused short-term warming, whereas the long-term effect of enhanced NCW formation was a greater northward heat transport that cooled Antarctica.
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| 2. |
- Graham, Robert M., et al.
(författare)
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Inferring source regions and supply mechanisms of iron in the Southern Ocean from satellite chlorophyll data
- 2015
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Ingår i: Deep Sea Research Part I. - : Elsevier BV. - 0967-0637 .- 1879-0119. ; 104, s. 9-25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Primary productivity is limited by the availability of iron over large areas of the global ocean. Changes in the supply of iron to these regions could have major impacts on primary productivity and the carbon cycle. However, source regions and supply mechanisms of iron to the global oceans remain poorly constrained. Shelf sediments are considered one of the largest sources of dissolved iron to the global ocean, and a large shelf sediment iron flux is prescribed in many biogeochemical models over all areas of bathymetry shallower than 1000 m. Here, we infer the likely location of shelf sediment iron sources in the Southern Ocean, by identifying where satellite chlorophyll concentrations are enhanced over shallow bathymetry (< 1000 m). We further compare chlorophyll concentrations with the position of ocean fronts, to assess the relative role of horizontal advection and upwelling for supplying iron to the ocean surface. We show that mean annual chlorophyll concentrations are not visibly enhanced over areas of shallow bathymetry that are located more than 500 km from a coastline. Mean annual chlorophyll concentrations > 2 mg m(-3) are only found within 50 km of a continental or island coastline. These results suggest that sedimentary iron sources only exist on continental and island shelves. Large sedimentary iron fluxes do not seem present on seamounts and submerged plateaus. Large chlorophyll blooms develop where the western boundary currents detach from the continental shelves, and turn eastward into the Sub-Antarctic Zone. Chlorophyll concentrations are enhanced along contours of sea surface height extending off the continental shelves, as shown by the trajectories of virtual water parcels in satellite altimetry data. These analyses support the hypothesis that bioavailable iron from continental shelves is entrained into western boundary currents, and advected into the Sub-Antarctic Zone along the Dynamical Subtropical Front. Our results indicate that upwelling at fronts in the open ocean is unlikely to deliver iron to the ocean surface from deep sources. Finally, we hypothesise how a reduction in sea level may have altered the distribution of shelf sediment iron sources in the Southern Ocean and increased export production over the Sub-Antarctic Zone during glacial intervals.
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| 3. |
- de Boer, Agatha M., et al.
(författare)
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Interconnectivity Between Volume Transports Through Arctic Straits
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans. - 2169-9275 .- 2169-9291. ; 123:12, s. 8714-8729
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arctic heat and freshwater budgets are highly sensitive to volume transports through the Arctic-Subarctic straits. Here we study the interconnectivity of volume transports through Arctic straits in three models; two coupled global climate models, one with a third-degree horizontal ocean resolution (High Resolution Global Environmental Model version 1.1 [HiGEM1.1]) and one with a twelfth-degree horizontal ocean resolution (Hadley Centre Global Environment Model 3 [HadGEM3]), and one ocean-only model with an idealized polar basin (tenth-degree horizontal resolution). The two global climate models indicate that there is a strong anticorrelation between the Bering Strait throughflow and the transport through the Nordic Seas, a second strong anticorrelation between the transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Nordic Seas transport, and a third strong anticorrelation is found between the Fram Strait and the Barents Sea throughflows. We find that part of the strait correlations is due to the strait transports being coincidentally driven by large-scale atmospheric forcing patterns. However, there is also a role for fast wave adjustments of some straits flows to perturbations in other straits since atmospheric forcing of individual strait flows alone cannot lead to near mass balance fortuitously every year. Idealized experiments with an ocean model (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean version 3.6) that investigate such causal strait relations suggest that perturbations in the Bering Strait are compensated preferentially in the Fram Strait due to the narrowness of the western Arctic shelf and the deeper depth of the Fram Strait. Plain Language Summary The Arctic is one of the most fragile places on the Earth, facing double the rate of warming as the rest of the globe. This warming is partly due to melting of sea ice because open water reflects less sunlight than ice. One of the major controls on Arctic sea ice concentration is the heat flowing into the Arctic through its straits. However, due to the harsh conditions in the Arctic, there are limited long-term observations of the currents flowing through these straits. Here we turn to climate models to investigate these Arctic straits flows and in particular focus on how flows into and out of the Arctic balance each other. We find that in some instances specific pairs of strait flows are simultaneously affected by large-scale atmospheric. In other instances, the inflow through one strait flows out through another distant strait because of the way the ocean floor guides the currents. Traditionally, the flows through Arctic straits are studied in relation to local forces such as wind and sea level. Our work suggests value in a more holistic approach; one that also accounts for flow changes in a strait as a response to flow changes in other straits.
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| 4. |
- Hutchinson, David K., et al.
(författare)
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Arctic closure as a trigger for Atlantic overturning at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT), approximately 34 Ma ago, marks a period of major global cooling and inception of the Antarctic ice sheet. Proxies of deep circulation suggest a contemporaneous onset or strengthening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Proxy evidence of gradual salinification of the North Atlantic and tectonically driven isolation of the Arctic suggest that closing the Arctic-Atlantic gateway could have triggered the AMOC at the EOT. We demonstrate this trigger of the AMOC using a new paleoclimate model with late Eocene boundary conditions. The control simulation reproduces Eocene observations of low Arctic salinities. Subsequent closure of the Arctic-Atlantic gateway triggers the AMOC by blocking freshwater inflow from the Arctic. Salt advection feedbacks then lead to cessation of overturning in the North Pacific. These circulation changes imply major warming of the North Atlantic Ocean, and simultaneous cooling of the North Pacific, but no interhemispheric change in temperatures.
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| 5. |
- Hutchinson, David K., et al.
(författare)
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Climate sensitivity and meridional overturning circulation in the late Eocene using GFDL CM2.1
- 2018
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 14:6, s. 789-810
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT), which took place approximately 34 Ma ago, is an interval of great interest in Earth's climate history, due to the inception of the Antarctic ice sheet and major global cooling. Climate simulations of the transition are needed to help interpret proxy data, test mechanistic hypotheses for the transition and determine the climate sensitivity at the time. However, model studies of the EOT thus far typically employ control states designed for a different time period, or ocean resolution on the order of 3 degrees. Here we developed a new higher resolution palaeoclimate model configuration based on the GFDL CM2.1 climate model adapted to a late Eocene (38 Ma) palaeogeography reconstruction. The ocean and atmosphere horizontal resolutions are 1 degrees similar to 1.5 degrees and 3 degrees 3.75 ffi respectively. This represents a significant step forward in resolving the ocean geography, gateways and circulation in a coupled climate model of this period. We run the model under three different levels of atmospheric CO2: 400, 800 and 1600 ppm. The model exhibits relatively high sensitivity to CO2 compared with other recent model studies, and thus can capture the expected Eocene high latitude warmth within observed estimates of atmospheric CO2. However, the model does not capture the low meridional temperature gradient seen in proxies. Equatorial sea surface temperatures are too high in the model (3037 degrees C) compared with observations (max 32 degrees C), although observations are lacking in the warmest regions of the western Pacific. The model exhibits bipolar sinking in the North Pacific and Southern Ocean, which persists under all levels of CO2. North Atlantic surface salinities are too fresh to permit sinking (25-30 psu), due to surface transport from the very fresh Arctic (similar to 20 psu), where surface salinities approximately agree with Eocene proxy estimates. North Atlantic salinity increases by 1-2 psu when CO2 is halved, and similarly freshens when CO2 is doubled, due to changes in the hydrological cycle.
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| 6. |
- Jakobsson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Post-glacial flooding of the Bering Land Bridge dated to 11 cal ka BP based on new geophysical and sediment records
- 2017
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 13:8, s. 991-1005
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Bering Strait connects the Arctic and Pacific oceans and separates the North American and Asian landmasses. The presently shallow (similar to 53 m) strait was exposed during the sea level lowstand of the last glacial period, which permitted human migration across a land bridge today referred to as the Bering Land Bridge. Proxy studies (stable isotope composition of foraminifera, whale migration into the Arctic Ocean, mollusc and insect fossils and paleobotanical data) have suggested a range of ages for the Bering Strait reopening, mainly falling within the Younger Dryas stadial (12.9-11.7 cal ka BP). Here we provide new information on the deglacial and post-glacial evolution of the Arctic-Pacific connection through the Bering Strait based on analyses of geological and geophysical data from Herald Canyon, located north of the Bering Strait on the Chukchi Sea shelf region in the western Arctic Ocean. Our results suggest an initial opening at about 11 cal ka BP in the earliest Holocene, which is later than in several previous studies. Our key evidence is based on a well-dated core from Herald Canyon, in which a shift from a near-shore environment to a Pacific-influenced open marine setting at around 11 cal ka BP is observed. The shift corresponds to meltwater pulse 1b (MWP1b) and is interpreted to signify relatively rapid breaching of the Bering Strait and the submergence of the large Bering Land Bridge. Although the precise rates of sea level rise cannot be quantified, our new results suggest that the late deglacial sea level rise was rapid and occurred after the end of the Younger Dryas stadial.
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| 7. |
- Sime, Louise C., et al.
(författare)
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Sea ice led to poleward-shifted winds at the Last Glacial Maximum : the influence of state dependency on CMIP5 and PMIP3 models
- 2016
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Ingår i: climate of the past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 12:12, s. 2241-2253
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Latitudinal shifts in the Southern Ocean westerly wind jet could drive changes in the glacial to interglacial ocean CO2 inventory. However, whilst CMIP5 model results feature consistent future-warming jet shifts, there is considerable disagreement in deglacial-warming jet shifts. We find here that the dependence of pre-industrial (PI) to Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) jet shifts on PI jet position, or state dependency, explains less of the shifts in jet simulated by the models for the LGM compared with future-warming scenarios. State dependence is also weaker for intensity changes, compared to latitudinal shifts in the jet. Winter sea ice was considerably more extensive during the LGM. Changes in surface heat fluxes, due to this sea ice change, probably had a large impact on the jet. Models that both simulate realistically large expansions in sea ice and feature PI jets which are south of 50 degrees S show an increase in wind speed around 55 degrees S and can show a poleward shift in the jet between the PI and the LGM. However, models with the PI jet positioned equatorwards of around 47 degrees S do not show this response: the sea ice edge is too far from the jet for it to respond. In models with accurately positioned PI jets, a +1 degrees difference in the latitude of the sea ice edge tends to be associated with a -0.85 degrees shift in the 850 hPa jet. However, it seems that around 5 degrees of expansion of LGM sea ice is necessary to hold the jet in its PI position. Since the Gersonde et al. (2005) data support an expansion of more than 5 degrees, this result suggests that a slight poleward shift and intensification was the most likely jet change between the PI and the LGM. Without the effect of sea ice, models simulate poleward-shifted westerlies in warming climates and equatorward-shifted westerlies in colder climates. However, the feedback of sea ice counters and reverses the equatorward trend in cooler climates so that the LGM winds were more likely to have also been shifted slightly poleward.
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| 8. |
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