A dinoflagellate cyst perspective on the surface circulation in the North Atlantic and Nordic seas during the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e)

• Main Authors: Van Nieuwenhove, Nicolas, De Vernal , Anne, Fréchette, Banca, Bauch, Henning A., Eynaud, Frédérique, Kandiano, Evgeniya
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: Centre de Villégiature Jouvence 2011
• Subjects: Greenland; East Greenland; Iceland; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/12153/; http://gizmo.geotop.uqam.ca//Gestion_Documents/Congres/RECUEIL_FINAL_2011.pdf

When looking for possible scenarios of future climate development, the last interglacial is a suitable candidate. This warm interval, know as Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e in marine sediments, lasted from ~130 000 to ~115 000 years ago, and is assumed to have been characterised by Holocene-like climatic boundary conditions. The northern North Atlantic and Nordic (Greenland, Iceland and Norwegian) seas are key areas in this context: the warm water masses that are advected into the region through the northward flowing Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift surface current system interact with the southward flowing polar water masses of the East Greenland/Labrador Current, and they are among the few regions were overturning and deep-water formation occurs. Changes in the sea-surface conditions in this area can therefore steer climate by influencing the Meridional Overturning Circulation, and the feedbacks this has on the atmospheric circulation. The goal of the project is to reconstruct the sea surface conditions in the northern North Atlantic and Nordic seas during MIS 5e in order to trace changes in the interaction between the warm water masses of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift current system and the cold water masses of the East Greenland/Labrador Current. This will be done by qualitative and quantitative analysis of dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, algal remains with a proven potential for paleoclimate reconstructions, in sediments from key localities across the North Atlantic and Nordic seas.