Surface changes in the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the last millennium
| Type | Article | ||||||||
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| Date | 2012-06 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Wanamaker Alan D., Jr.1, 2, Butler Paul G2, Scourse James D.2, Heinemeier Jan3, Eiriksson Jon4, 5, Knudsen Karen Luise6, Richardson Christopher A.2 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Iowa State Univ, Dept Geol & Atmospher Sci, Ames, IA 50011 USA. 2 : Bangor Univ, Sch Ocean Sci, Coll Nat Sci, Menai Bridge LL59 5AB, Anglesey, Wales. 3 : Aarhus Univ, AMS Dating Ctr 14C, Dept Phys & Astron, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. 4 : Univ Iceland, Inst Earth Sci, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. 5 : Univ Copenhagen, Nat Hist Museum Denmark, Ctr GeoGenet, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. 6 : Aarhus Univ, Dept Geosci, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. |
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| Source | Nature Communications (2041-1723) (Nature Publishing Group), 2012-06 , Vol. 3 , N. 899 , P. 1-7 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.1038/ncomms1901 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 135 | ||||||||
| Abstract | Despite numerous investigations, the dynamical origins of the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age remain uncertain. A major unresolved issue relating to internal climate dynamics is the mode and tempo of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability, and the significance of decadal-to-centennial scale changes in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation strength in regulating the climate of the last millennium. Here we use the time-constrained high-resolution local radiocarbon reservoir age offset derived from an absolutely dated annually resolved shell chronology spanning the past 1,350 years, to reconstruct changes in surface ocean circulation and climate. The water mass tracer data presented here from the North Icelandic shelf, combined with previously published data from the Arctic and subtropical Atlantic, show that surface Atlantic meridional overturning circulation dynamics likely amplified the relatively warm conditions during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the relatively cool conditions during the Little Ice Age within the North Atlantic sector. | ||||||||
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