Western Arctic Ocean temperature variability during the last 8000 years

Articles:

Title:: Western Arctic Ocean temperature variability during the last 8000 years
Author(s):: Farmer, Jesse Robert
Cronin, Thomas M.
Vernal, Anne de
Dwyer, Gary S.
Keigwin, Lloyd D.
Thunell, Robert C.
Date:: 2011
Type:: Articles
Department:: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Volume:: 38
Permanent URL:: http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14401
Book/Journal Title:: Geophysical Research Letters
Abstract:: We reconstructed subsurface (∼200–400 m) ocean temperature and sea-ice cover in the Canada Basin, western Arctic Ocean from foraminiferal δ18O, ostracode Mg/Ca ratios, and dinocyst assemblages from two sediment core records covering the last 8000 years. Results show mean temperature varied from −1 to 0.5°C and −0.5 to 1.5°C at 203 and 369 m water depths, respectively. Centennial-scale warm periods in subsurface temperature records correspond to reductions in summer sea-ice cover inferred from dinocyst assemblages around 6.5 ka, 3.5 ka, 1.8 ka and during the 15th century Common Era. These changes may reflect centennial changes in the temperature and/or strength of inflowing Atlantic Layer water originating in the eastern Arctic Ocean. By comparison, the 0.5 to 0.7°C warm temperature anomaly identified in oceanographic records from the Atlantic Layer of the Canada Basin exceeded reconstructed Atlantic Layer temperatures for the last 1200 years by about 0.5°C.
Subject(s):: Paleoclimate science
DOI:: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GL049714