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Variability of sea-ice conditions in the Fram Strait over the past 30,000 years

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 772–776 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Sea ice is a critical component of the climate system: variations in sea-ice cover affect the albedo of polar regions, and also the rate of deepwater formation1,2. Changes in the sea-ice cover of the North Atlantic Ocean are thought to have been related to abrupt climate changes throughout the last glacial termination3, but reconstructions of sea-ice conditions are rare. Here we use the sedimentary abundance of the IP25 and brassicasterol biomarkers, produced by sea-ice-associated diatoms and open-water phytoplankton, respectively, to generate a record of sea-ice conditions in the northernmost Atlantic Ocean for the past 30,000 years. Our reconstruction shows that a stationary margin between sea-ice cover and the open ocean existed during the Last Glacial, although perennial sea-ice cover prevailed for most of the Last Glacial Maximum. An early warming about 14,000 years ago was associated with ice-free conditions; however, seasonal sea ice was present throughout the Holocene. We find temporal links between our record of sea ice and reconstructions of the amount of relatively warm Atlantic water advected into the Nordic Seas4,5. We therefore conclude that changes in sea-ice conditions are linked to regional and global climate anomalies and oceanographic circulation in the North Atlantic.

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Figure 1: Map showing the PS2837-5 core site in northern Fram Strait, major ocean currents and sea-ice margins14.
Figure 2: Temporal evolution of organic carbon9, brassicasterol9 and IP25 accumulation rates (fluxes), and δ18O values from the GISP2 ice core22.
Figure 3: Schematic illustrations of distinct sea-ice conditions at the PS2837-5 core site for selected time intervals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. J. Rowland and D. Birgel for discussions on the use of selected biomarkers and for provision of some geochemical data from PS2837-5. Financial support was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, STE 412/24-1, the European Research Council (StG project 203441) and the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NE/D013216/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany

    Juliane Müller & Rüdiger Stein

  2. LOCEAN, UMR7159 CNRS/UPMC/IRD/MNHN, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France

    Guillaume Massé

  3. SEOES, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, PL48AA Plymouth, UK

    Guillaume Massé & Simon T. Belt

Authors
  1. Juliane Müller
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  2. Guillaume Massé
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  4. Simon T. Belt
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Contributions

All authors contributed equally to this work; S.T.B. and G.M. designed the analytical method; J.M. carried out experiments, analysed data and drafted the original manuscript; all authors interpreted the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Juliane Müller.

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Müller, J., Massé, G., Stein, R. et al. Variability of sea-ice conditions in the Fram Strait over the past 30,000 years. Nature Geosci 2, 772–776 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo665

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