Reconstruction of Holocene oceanographic conditions in eastern Baffin Bay ...

• Main Authors: Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard, Giraudeau, Jacques, Wacker, Lukas, Pearce, Christof, Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2020
• Subjects: Arctic Archipelago; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Baffin Bay; Baffin; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Foraminifera*; Greenland; Nares strait; North Atlantic; Sea ice; Upernavik
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000425951; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/425951

Baffin Bay is a semi-enclosed basin connecting the Arctic Ocean and the western North Atlantic, thus making out a significant pathway for heat exchange. Here we reconstruct the alternating advection of relatively warmer and saline Atlantic waters versus the incursion of colder Arctic water masses entering Baffin Bay through the multiple gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Nares Strait during the Holocene. We carried out benthic foraminiferal assemblage analyses, X-ray fluorescence scanning, and radiocarbon dating of a 738 cm long marine sediment core retrieved from eastern Baffin Bay near Upernavik, Greenland (Core AMD14-204C; 987 m water depth). Results reveal that eastern Baffin Bay was subjected to several oceanographic changes during the last 9.2 kyr. Waning deglacial conditions with enhanced meltwater influxes and an extensive sea-ice cover prevailed in eastern Baffin Bay from 9.2 to 7.9 ka. A transition towards bottom water amelioration is recorded at 7.9 ka by increased advection of ... : Climate of the Past, 16 (3) ...