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Paleoceanography

A current take on past overturning

Nature Geoscience volume 16, pages 286–287 (2023)Cite this article

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Deep overturning circulation in the North Atlantic strongly influences the global climate system. Combined proxy record compilations and modelling refine our understanding of the behaviour of this circulation over the last 20,000 years.

Winds and evaporation cool the salty North Atlantic and trigger the descent of water from the surface to the deep ocean. Part of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), this deep overturning process has wide-ranging impacts throughout the global climate system, influencing variables such as heat distribution, nutrient and carbon cycling, and tropical rain belt position. Past overturning circulation fluctuations present an opportunity to test the performance of Earth system models that underpin future projections for how the system will respond to climate change. While there are abundant geological indications for large-scale changes to this circulation in the past, this evidence sometimes supports a range of possible interpretations. This is especially the case for the overturning circulation during the deglaciation that followed the Last Glacial Maximum between about 22,000 and 10,000 years ago. As they report in Nature Geoscience, Pöppelmeier et al.1 tackle this challenge by developing a framework combining four compilations of independent proxies with paleoclimate modelling to figure out how the AMOC changed through this major climate transition.

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Fig. 1: Modelled surface circulation and temperature in the northwestern Atlantic.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA’s Earth Observatory

References

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  1. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, MD, USA

    K. Halimeda Kilbourne

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  1. K. Halimeda Kilbourne
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Correspondence to K. Halimeda Kilbourne.

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Kilbourne, K.H. A current take on past overturning. Nat. Geosci. 16, 286–287 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01158-7

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