Sea surface temperature variability and sea-ice extent in the subarctic northwest Pacific during the past 15,000 years

Type Article
Date 2012-08
Language English
Author(s) Max Lars1, Riethdorf Jan-Rainer2, Tiedemann Ralf1, Smirnova Maria3, Lembke-Jene Lester1, Fahl Kirsten1, Nuernberg Dirk2, Matul Alexander3, Mollenhauer Gesine1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Alfred Wegener Inst Polar & Marine Res, DE-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany.
2 : Helmholtz Zentrum Ozeanforsch Kiel, GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany.
3 : PP Shirshov Inst Oceanol, Moscow, Russia.
Source Paleoceanography (0883-8305) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2012-08 , Vol. 27 , N. PA3213 , P. 1-20
DOI 10.1029/2012PA002292
WOS© Times Cited 114
Abstract Past changes in North Pacific sea surface temperatures and sea-ice conditions are proposed to play a crucial role in deglacial climate development and ocean circulation but are less well known than from the North Atlantic. Here, we present new alkenone-based sea surface temperature records from the subarctic northwest Pacific and its marginal seas (Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk) for the time interval of the last 15 kyr, indicating millennial-scale sea surface temperature fluctuations similar to short-term deglacial climate oscillations known from Greenland ice core records. Past changes in sea-ice distribution are derived from relative percentage of specific diatom groups and qualitative assessment of the IP25 biomarker related to sea-ice diatoms. The deglacial variability in sea-ice extent matches the sea surface temperature fluctuations. These fluctuations suggest a linkage to deglacial variations in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and a close atmospheric coupling between the North Pacific and North Atlantic. During the Holocene the subarctic North Pacific is marked by complex sea surface temperature trends, which do not support the hypothesis of a Holocene seesaw in temperature development between the North Atlantic and the North Pacific.
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Max Lars, Riethdorf Jan-Rainer, Tiedemann Ralf, Smirnova Maria, Lembke-Jene Lester, Fahl Kirsten, Nuernberg Dirk, Matul Alexander, Mollenhauer Gesine (2012). Sea surface temperature variability and sea-ice extent in the subarctic northwest Pacific during the past 15,000 years. Paleoceanography, 27(PA3213), 1-20. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1029/2012PA002292 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00265/37630/