Sea-ice response to climate change in the Bering Sea during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition
Sea-ice is believed to be an important control on climatic changes through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 0.6–1.2 Ma). However, the low resolution/short timescale of existing reconstructions prevents a full evaluation of these dynamics. Here, diatom assemblages from the Bering Sea are used to...
| Published in: | Quaternary Science Reviews |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46919/ http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46919/1/1593237_Worne.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106918 |
| Summary: | Sea-ice is believed to be an important control on climatic changes through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 0.6–1.2 Ma). However, the low resolution/short timescale of existing reconstructions prevents a full evaluation of these dynamics. Here, diatom assemblages from the Bering Sea are used to investigate sea-ice evolution on millennial timescales. We find that sea-ice was primarily controlled by ice-sheet/sea level fluctuations that modulated warm water flow into the Bering Sea. Facilitated by an amplified Walker circulation, sea-ice expansion began at ∼1.05 Ma with a step-increase during the 900 kyr event. Maximal pack ice was simultaneous with glacial maxima, suggesting sea-ice was responding to, rather than modulating ice-sheet dynamics, as proposed by the sea-ice switch hypothesis. Significant pack ice, coupled with Bering Strait closure at 0.9 Ma, indicates that brine rejection played an integral role in the glacial expansion/deglacial collapse of intermediate waters during the MPT, regulating subarctic ocean-atmospheric exchanges of CO2. |
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