The climate influence on the mid-depth Northeast Atlantic gyres viewed by cold-water corals

Details The climate influence on the mid-depth Northeast Atlantic gyres viewed by cold-water corals The climate influence on the mid-depth Northeast Atlantic gyres viewed by cold-water corals

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011georl..3819604m&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 38, Issue 19, CiteID L19604

Physics

Biogeosciences: Paleoclimatology And Paleoceanography (3344, 4900), Geochemistry: Radiogenic Isotope Geochemistry, Paleoceanography: Abrupt/Rapid Climate Change (1605), Paleoceanography: Geochemical Tracers, Paleoceanography: Thermohaline

Scientific paper

The neodymium (Nd) isotopic composition (expressed in epsilon units, $\varepsilon$Nd) of reef framework-forming cold-water corals provides unique measures of water mass provenance and mixing within the Northeast Atlantic today and in the past. A reconstruction of near thermocline water $\varepsilon$Nd from cold-water corals of the Gulf of Cádiz and Porcupine Seabight spanning over the past 300,000 years, now revealed that climate cooling during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7.2 and MIS 8/9 led to a retraction of the mid-depth Subpolar Gyre (mSPG) to the west. Conversely, Northern Hemisphere warming and increasing fresh water fluxes to the northwest (Labrador Sea) favor a stronger eastward extension of the mSPG blocking the northward flow of temperate Atlantic water as observed during the early MIS 1 and the early stage MIS 5.5. These changes are likely the result of large-scale south-north displacement of the westerlies similar to present-day observations that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is linked with mid-depth ocean circulation. Based on these observations, we hypothesize that further climate warming will also strengthen the mSPG leading to a salt and temperature decrease in the Northeast Atlantic whereas salinity and temperature will increase in the temperate Atlantic. However, the amplitude of such changes on North Atlantic overturning remains to be tested.

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