120,000 year record of sea ice in the North Atlantic

Type Article
Date 2019
Language English
Author(s) Maffezzoli Niccolò1, Vallelonga Paul1, Edwards Ross2, 3, Saiz-Lopez Alfonso4, Turetta Clara5, 6, Kjær Helle Astrid1, Barbante Carlo5, 6, Vinther Bo1, Spolaor Andrea5, 6
Affiliation(s) 1 : Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, Copenhagen Ø 2100, Denmark
2 : Physics and Astronomy, Curtin University of Technology, Kent St, Bentley, WA 6102, Perth, Australia
3 : Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
4 : Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate, Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
5 : Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Via Torino 155, 30170 Venice Mestre, Italy
6 : Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes, IDPA-CNR, Via Torino 155, 30170 Venice Mestre, Italy
Source Climate of the Past (1814-9332) (Copernicus GmbH), 2019 , Vol. 15 , N. 6 , P. 2031-2051
DOI 10.5194/cp-2018-80
Abstract

Although it has been demonstrated that the speed and magnitude of recent Arctic sea ice decline is unprecedented for the past 1,450 years, few records are available to provide a paleoclimate context for Arctic sea ice extent. Here we present a 120 kyr record of bromine enrichment from the RECAP ice core, coastal East Greenland, and reconstruct past sea ice conditions in the North Atlantic as far north as the entrance of the Arctic Ocean (50–85° N). Bromine enrichment has been previously employed to reconstruct first-year sea ice (FYSI) in the Canadian Arctic over the last glacial cycle. We find that during the last deglaciation, the transition from multi-year sea ice (MYSI) to FYSI started at ∼ 17.6 kyr, synchronous with sea ice reductions observed in the eastern Nordic seas (Müller and Stein, 2014; Hoff et al., 2016) and with the increase of North Atlantic ocean temperature (Dokken and Jansen, 1999). FYSI reached its maximum extent at 12.4–11.8 kyr, after which open-water conditions started to dominate, as supported by sea ice records from the eastern Nordic seas and the North Icelandic shelf. Our results show that over the last 120,000 years, sea ice extent was greatest during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 and MIS4, with decreased levels during MIS3 and the onset of the last glacial period (late-MIS5). Sea ice extent during the last 10 kyr (Holocene/MIS1) has been less than at any time in the last 120 kyr.

Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Discussion paper 19 2 MB Open access
Publisher's official version 21 7 MB Open access
Top of the page

How to cite 

Maffezzoli Niccolò, Vallelonga Paul, Edwards Ross, Saiz-Lopez Alfonso, Turetta Clara, Kjær Helle Astrid, Barbante Carlo, Vinther Bo, Spolaor Andrea (2019). 120,000 year record of sea ice in the North Atlantic. Climate of the Past, 15(6), 2031-2051. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2018-80 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00504/61580/