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://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/holocene-north-atlantic-overturning-in-an-atmosphereoceansea-ice-model-compared-to-proxybased-reconstructions(e4c9677a-af9b-4841-b386-10903ff46c35).html