Holocene North Atlantic Overturning in an atmosphere-ocean-sea ice model compared to proxy-based reconstructions

Author(s)
M. Blaschek, H. Renssen, C. Kissel, D. Thornalley
Abstract

Climate and ocean circulation in the North Atlantic region changed over the course of the Holocene, partly because of disintegrating ice sheets and partly because of an orbital-induced insolation trend. In the Nordic Seas, this impact was accompanied by a rather small, but significant, amount of Greenland ice sheet melting. We have employed the EMIC LOVECLIM and compared our model simulations with proxy-based reconstructions of δ

13C, sortable silt, and magnetic susceptibility (κ) used to infer changes in past ocean circulation over the last 9000 years. The various reconstructions exhibit different long-term evolutions suggesting changes in either the overturning of the Atlantic in total or of subcomponents of the ocean circulation, such as the overflow waters across the Greenland-Scotland ridge. Thus, the question arises whether these reconstructions are consistent with each other or not. A comparison with model results indicates that δ

13C, employed as an indicator of overturning, agrees well with the long-term evolution of the modeled Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The model results suggest that different long-term trends in subcomponents of the AMOC, such as Iceland-Scotland overflow water, are consistent with proxy-based reconstructions and allow some of the reconstructions to be reconciled with the modeled and reconstructed (from δ

13C) AMOC evolution. We find a weak early Holocene AMOC, which recovers by 7 kyr B.P. and shows a weak increasing trend of 88 ± 1 mSv/kyr toward present, with relatively low variability on centennial to millennial timescales. Key Points δ

13C in the Norwegian Sea allows reconstructing convective activity Paleomodeling allows reconciling different trends in proxy-based reconstructions Long-term evolution of the AMOC is relatively stable since 7 kyr B.P.

Organisation(s)
Department of Meteorology and Geophysics
External organisation(s)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Journal
Paleoceanography
Volume
30
Pages
1503-1524
No. of pages
22
ISSN
0883-8305
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015PA002828
Publication date
11-2015
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
105205 Climate change, 105204 Climatology, 105121 Sedimentology, 105306 Oceanography
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Oceanography, Palaeontology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 13 - Climate Action
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/holocene-north-atlantic-overturning-in-an-atmosphereoceansea-ice-model-compared-to-proxybased-reconstructions(e4c9677a-af9b-4841-b386-10903ff46c35).html