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 preciso other oceans, although still primarily limited to high sediment-accumulation-rate, near-shore basins. Pioneering research seeking preciso identify a long-term tendenza mediante upper ocean temperatures focused on reconstructing SSTs for 9 and 6 ka, using planktonic foraminiferal assemblages ( Ruddiman and Mix, 1993 ). Calibration studies sopra the 1950s and 1960s had demonstrated that un groupings of planktonic Foraminifera are highly correlated puro SST, sopra adjonction puro salinity and ciotola-column nutrients ( Morey et al., 2005 ). Ruddiman and Mix (1993) found mai discernible pattern of past SST variability in 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 a variety of methods (diatom assemblages, marine mollusks, and dinoflagellate cysts), found that warmer conditions (+ 1–4 °C divisee onesto 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 preciso middle Holocene is perhaps best illustrated sopra core MD952011 ( Calvo et al., 2002 ) from the Norwegian Sea where maximum SST warming (+ 2 ° C relative esatto today) accompanied the Holocene Thermal Maximum between 8.6 and 5.5 ka, followed by a gradual cooling esatto 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 in the North Atlantic (north of 35 ° N) and the western Mediterranean Sea esibizione verso cooling inclinazione of 0.15–0.27 ° C per thousand years over the past 10 ka ( ). These records are significant mediante that they span verso large dipartimento of the NE North Atlantic from 36° preciso 74 ° N latitude ( Figure 6 ). This surface ocean cooling inclinazione is also apparent mediante three non-alkenone reconstructions from the Labrador Sea and Iceland Basin ( Figure 7 ). Isotopic analyses (? 18 O) on two foraminiferal species, reddit older women dating in combination with dinocyst assemblage momento, suggest that SSTs have been cooling steadily since the early Holocene ( Solignac et al., 2004 ). These ? 18 O records each spettacolo more high-frequency variability than the alkenone-derived records, likely because of the sensitivity of isotopes puro changes con 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 sopra the North Atlantic – contrasted trends and regimes in the western and eastern sectors (Labrador Sea vs. Iceland Basin). Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 319–334.