Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

One-to-one coupling of glacial climate variability in Greenland and Antarctica

Abstract

Precise knowledge of the phase relationship between climate changes in the two hemispheres is a key for understanding the Earth’s climate dynamics. For the last glacial period, ice core studies1,2 have revealed strong coupling of the largest millennial-scale warm events in Antarctica with the longest Dansgaard–Oeschger events in Greenland3,4,5 through the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation6,7,8. It has been unclear, however, whether the shorter Dansgaard–Oeschger events have counterparts in the shorter and less prominent Antarctic temperature variations, and whether these events are linked by the same mechanism. Here we present a glacial climate record derived from an ice core from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, which represents South Atlantic climate at a resolution comparable with the Greenland ice core records. After methane synchronization with an ice core from North Greenland9, the oxygen isotope record from the Dronning Maud Land ice core shows a one-to-one coupling between all Antarctic warm events and Greenland Dansgaard–Oeschger events by the bipolar seesaw6. The amplitude of the Antarctic warm events is found to be linearly dependent on the duration of the concurrent stadial in the North, suggesting that they all result from a similar reduction in the meridional overturning circulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Antarctic stable isotope records show synchronous millennial variations during the last glacial, whereas rapid variations are encountered in Greenland.
Figure 2: Methane synchronization of the EDML and the NGRIP records reveals a one‐to‐one assignment of each Antarctic warming with a corresponding stadial in Greenland.
Figure 3: Amplitudes of Antarctic warmings show a linear relationship ( r 2  = 0.85) with the duration of the accompanying stadial in Greenland during MIS3.

References

  1. Blunier, T. & Brook, E. J. Timing of millennial-scale climate change in Antarctica and Greenland during the last glacial period. Science 291, 109–112 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Blunier, T. et al. Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period. Nature 394, 739–743 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Johnsen, S. J. et al. Irregular glacial interstadials recorded in a new Greenland ice core. Nature 359, 311–313 (1992)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bond, G. et al. Correlations between records from North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice. Nature 365, 143–147 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. McManus, J. F., Oppo, D. W. & Cullen, J. L. A 0.5-million-year record of millennial climate variability in the North Atlantic. Science 283, 971–975 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stocker, T. F. & Johnsen, S. J. A minimum thermodynamic model of the bipolar seesaw. Paleoceanography 18, art. no. 1087 (2003)

  7. Knutti, R., Flückiger, J., Stocker, T. F. & Timmermann, A. Strong hemispheric coupling of glacial climate through freshwater discharge and ocean circulation. Nature 430, 851–856 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ganopolski, A. & Rahmstorf, S. Rapid changes of glacial climate simulated in a coupled climate model. Nature 409, 153–158 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. North Greenland Ice Core Project members. High resolution climate record of the northern hemisphere reaching into the last interglacial period. Nature 431, 147–151 (2004)

  10. Landais, A. et al. Quantification of rapid temperature change during DO event 12 and phasing with methane inferred from air isotopic measurements. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 225, 221–232 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Huber, C. et al. Isotope calibrated Greenland temperature record over Marine Isotope Stage 3 and its relation to CH4 . Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 245, 504–519 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. EPICA community members. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 429, 623–628 (2004)

  13. Watanabe, O. et al. Homogeneous climate variability across East Antarctica over the past three glacial cycles. Nature 422, 509–512 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Roe, G. H. & Steig, E. J. Characterization of millennial-scale climate variability. J. Clim. 17, 1929–1944 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Oerter, H. et al. Accumulation rates in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, as revealed by dielectric-profiling measurements of shallow firn cores. Ann. Glaciol. 30, 27–34 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Reijmer, C. H., van den Broeke, M. R. & Scheele, M. P. Air parcel trajectories to five deep drilling locations on Antarctica, based on the ERA-15 data set. J. Clim. 15, 1957–1968 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Petit, J. R. et al. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399, 429–436 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Basile, I. et al. Patagonian origin of glacial dust deposited in East Antarctica (Vostok and Dome C) during glacial stages 2, 4 and 6. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 146, 573–589 (1997)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Bianchi, C. & Gersonde, R. The Southern Ocean surface between Marine Isotope Stage 6 and 5d: Shape and timing of climate changes. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 187, 151–177 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Rasmussen, S. O. et al. A new Greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination. J. Geophys. Res. 111, D06102 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Andersen, K. K. et al. The Greenland ice core chronology 2005, 15–42 kyr. Part 1: Constructing the time scale. Quat. Sci. Rev. (in the press).

  22. Stenni, B. et al. A late-glacial high-resolution site and source temperature record derived from the EPICA Dome C isotope records (East Antarctica). Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 217, 183–195 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Raisbeck, G., Yiou, F. & Jouzel, J. Cosmogenic 10Be as a high resolution correlation tool for climate records. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, abstr. A623 (2002)

  24. Shackleton, N. J., Hall, M. A. & Vincent, E. Phase relationships between millennial-scale events 64,000–24,000 years ago. Paleoceanography 15, 565–569 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Rahmstorf, S. Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years. Nature 419, 207–214 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Röthlisberger, R. et al. Dust and sea-salt variability in central East Antarctica (Dome C) over the last 45 kyrs and its implications for southern high-latitude climate. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, article no. 1963 (2002)

  27. Bond, G. & Lotti, R. Iceberg discharges into the North Atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation. Science 267, 1005–1010 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. de Abreu, L., Shackleton, N. J., Joachim Schönfeld, J., Hall, M. & Chapman, M. Millennial-scale oceanic climate variability off the Western Iberian margin during the last two glacial periods. Mar. Geol. 196, 1–20 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Knorr, G. & Lohmann, G. Southern Ocean origin for the resumption of Atlantic thermohaline circulation during deglaciation. Nature 424, 532–536 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Stocker, T. F. & Wright, D. G. Rapid transitions of the ocean's deep circulation induced by changes in surface water fluxes. Nature 351, 729–732 (1991)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission scientific programme, funded by the EU (EPICA-MIS) and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The main logistic support was provided by IPEV and PNRA (at Dome C) and AWI (at Dronning Maud Land).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Consortia

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Fischer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

A full list of authors and their affiliations appears at the end of the paper.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Notes

This file provides details on the new EDC3/EDML1 age scale, on the CH4 synchronization of EDML and NGRIP, on systematic effects in δ18O which have been corrected for at EDML as well as how temperatures and accumulation rates have been derived from δ18O at EDML. Includes supplementary figures S1 (map of Antarctica indicating drill sites), S2 (details on CH4 synchronization uncertainty) and S3 (correction of EDML δ18O record). (PDF 292 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

δ18O record from Dronning Maud Land in 0.5 m resolution. For the upper 125 m δ18O data in 1 m resolution from the shallow ice core DML05 (drilled 2 km away from the deep drilling site) has been added after splicing the two records unambiguously using pronounced volcanic horizons. The table lists the measured δ18O values over depth and the respective age according to the EDML1/EDC3 age scale together with δ18O values after correcting for the sea level effect and after sea level plus upstream correction. (XLS 685 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

EDML δ18O record in 100 yr resolution on the GICC05 age scale in the time window 10-51 kyr BP after CH4 synchronization as used in Figure 2. Listed are the measured δ18O data vs. GICC05 age, the sea level corrected δ18O data and the sea level plus upstream corrected δ18O values. (XLS 47 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

EDML CH4 data after matching to the Greenland CH4 composite. Listed are the measured CH4 concentrations vs. depth and the respective GICC05 age. (XLS 36 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

EPICA Community Members. One-to-one coupling of glacial climate variability in Greenland and Antarctica. Nature 444, 195–198 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05301

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05301

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing