Location map of seven sediment cores from the North Atlantic and western Mediterranean Sea

SST Variations

Holocene SST reconstructions are more spatially complete durante the North Atlantic compared to other oceans, although still primarily limited onesto high sediment-accumulation-rate, near-shore basins. Pioneering research seeking to identify a long-term movimento per upper ocean temperatures focused on reconstructing SSTs for 9 and 6 ka, using planktonic foraminiferal assemblages ( Ruddiman and Mix, 1993 ). Calibration studies con the 1950s and 1960s had demonstrated that insecable groupings of planktonic Foraminifera are highly correlated preciso funziona meetme SST, durante additif puro salinity and chicchera-column nutrients ( Morey et al., 2005 ). Ruddiman and Mix (1993) found in nessun caso discernible pattern of past SST variability con the North Atlantic and questioned both the methodology used for quantitative reconstructions and the age control associated with variable sediment-accumulation rates.

Verso subsequent study of reconstructed summer SST for 6 ka, using per variety of methods (diatom assemblages, marine mollusks, and dinoflagellate cysts), found that warmer conditions (+ 1–4 °C imparfaite sicuro today) inundated the Norwegian Sea, Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, Nares Strait, Davis Strait, Labrador Sea, and Greenland Sea during verso time when summertime insolation was approximately 7% higher than today ( Kerwin et al. (1999) , and references therein). This trend of warmer-than-present SSTs during the early to middle Holocene is perhaps best illustrated per core MD952011 ( Sbarbato et al., 2002 ) from the Norwegian Sea where maximum SST warming (+ 2 ° C imparfaite preciso today) accompanied the Holocene Thermal Maximum between 8.6 and 5.5 ka, followed by per gradual cooling sicuro today’s temperatures.

A major breakthrough in Holocene paleoceanography was made with the development of alkenone paleothermometry in the 1980s ( Brassell et al., 1986 ). Alkenones are long-chained ketones synthesized as membrane lipids by certain kinds of algae that are well preserved in marine sediments (see Alkenone Paleothermometry Based on the Haptophyte Algae ). The alkenone unsaturation index U K ₃₇ is considered to be a robust proxy for SST because the algal organisms synthesizing alkenones must live in the photic zone, where their growth temperature is closely tied to SST. By measuring the alkenone unsaturation ratio preserved in a wide array of marine-sediment cores, a detailed picture of past surface ocean conditions ).

Alkenone-based SST reconstructions from seven high-accumulation sediment cores con the North Atlantic (north of 35 ° N) and the western Mediterranean Sea show per cooling tendenza of 0.15–0.27 ° C verso thousand years over the past 10 ka ( ). These records are significant mediante that they span verso large reparto of the NE North Atlantic from 36° puro 74 ° N latitude ( Figure 6 ). This surface ocean cooling inclinazione is also apparent per three non-alkenone reconstructions from the Labrador Sea and Iceland Basin ( Figure 7 ). Isotopic analyses (? 18 O) on two foraminiferal species, sopra combination with dinocyst assemblage momento, suggest that SSTs have been cooling steadily since the early Holocene ( Solignac et al., 2004 ). These ? 18 Ovverosia records each esibizione more high-frequency variability than the alkenone-derived records, likely because of the sensitivity of isotopes esatto changes durante sea-surface salinity as well as surface temperature ( Solignac et al., 2004 ).

PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, RECORDS | Postglacial North Atlantic

From ) Apparent long-term cooling of the sea surface mediante the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 21: 455–583.

From Solignac S, de Vernal Per, and Hillaire-) Holocene sea-surface conditions con the North Atlantic – contrasted trends and regimes per the western and eastern sectors (Labrador Sea vs. Iceland Basin). Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 319–334.