Changes in Meridional Temperature and Salinity Gradients in the North Atlantic Ocean (30°-72°N) during the Last Interglacial Period

• Published in: Paleoceanography
• Main Authors: Cortijo, Elsa, Lehman, Scott, Keigwin, Lloyd, Chapman, Mark, Paillard, Didier, Labeyrie, Laurent
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Paléocéanographie (PALEOCEAN), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Modélisation du climat (CLIM)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1999
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02958609; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02958609/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02958609/file/1998PA900004.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/1998PA900004

International audience Eight deep-sea sediment cores from the North Atlantic Ocean ranging from 31 ø to 72øN are studied to reconstruct the meridional gradients in surface hydrographic conditions during the interval of minimum ice volume within the last interglacial period. Using benthie foraminiferal $•SO measurements and estimates of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), we show that summer SSTs and SSSs decreased gradually during the interval of minimum ice volume at high-latitude sites (52ø-72øN) whereas they were stable or increased during the same time period at low-latitude sites (31 ø-41 øN). This increase in meridional gradients of SSTs and SSSs may have been due to changes in the latitudinal distribution of summer and annual-average insolation and associated oceanic and atmospheric feedbacks. These fiends documented for the Eemian ice volume minimum period are similar to corresponding changes observed during the Holocene and may have had a similar origin.