Dinocyst assemblages of site HM52-43 ...

• Main Authors: De Vernal, Anne, Hillaire-Marcel, Claude, Jean-Louis Turon, Matthiessen, Jens
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data 2000
• Subjects: North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.15468/hhkmzy; https://www.gbif.org/dataset/8d76701c-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a

Past sea-surface conditions over the northern North Atlantic during the last glacial maximum were examined from the study of 61 deep-sea cores. The last glacial maximum time slice studied here corresponds to an interval between Heinrich layers H2 and H1, and spanning about 20-16 ka on a 14C time scale. Transfer functions based on dinocyst assemblages were used to reconstruct sea-surface temperature, salinity, and sea-ice cover. The results illustrate extensive sea-ice cover along the eastern Canadian margins and sea-ice spreading, only during winter, over most of the northern North Atlantic. On the whole, much colder winter prevailed, despite relatively mild conditions in August (10-15°C at most offshore sites), thus suggesting a larger seasonal contrast of temperatures than today. Lower salinity than at present is reconstructed, especially along the eastern Canadian and Scandinavian margins, likely because of meltwater supply from the surrounding ice sheets. These reconstructions contrast with those ...