Sea Ice Variability in the Northern North Atlantic during the Last 14 Kyr BP

Sea ice plays an important role on the Earth’s climate system by controlling fluxes of heat and moisture across the ocean-atmosphere interface and changes in the Earth’s albedo, as well as oceanic circulation processes (e.g. the thermohaline circulation). Thus, reconstruction of Arctic sea ice is necessary to understand past sea ice variability and help improve the accuracy of model-based estimates of future changes in climate. Recently, the presence of the sea ice diatom biomarker IP₂₅in Arctic marine sediments has been used as a proxy for past spring sea ice occurrence and as an indicator of wider palaeoenvironmental conditions for different regions of the Arctic over various timescales (e.g. Belt and Müller, 2013).

Here, we present and compare new and existing biomarker data from different sediment cores along a S-N transect on the Norwegian – Svalvard continental margin from ca. 69 ºN to 78.5 ºN, northern North Atlantic. The presence and abundances of the sea ice biomarker IP₂₅, a related HBI Diene and various sterols (e.g. brassicasterol, 24-methylenecholesterol) were used to infer past variations of sea ice/open-water conditions in the study area during the last 14 kyr BP. In addition, a comparison with other commonly used proxies for reconstructing different palaeoenvironmental conditions (e.g. planktic and benthic foraminiferal fauna, SST, IRD) was used to enable a more comprehensive reconstruction of climatic variations.

References

Belt, S.T., Müller, J., 2013. The Arctic sea ice biomarker IP₂₅: a review of current understanding, recommendations for future research and applications in palaeo sea ice reconstructions. Quaternary Science Reviews 79, 9-25.