Enhanced Arctic sea ice melting controlled by larger heat discharge of mid-Holocene rivers

Arctic sea ice retreat is linked to extrapolar thermal energy import, while the potential impact of pan-Arctic river heat discharge on sea-ice loss has been unresolved. We reconstructed the Holocene history of Arctic sea ice and Russian pan-Arctic river heat discharge, combining ice-rafted debris re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Dong, Jiang, Shi, Xuefa, Gong, Xun, Astakhov, Anatolii S., Hu, Limin, Liu, Xiting, Yang, Gang, Wang, Yixuan, Vasilenko, Yuri, Qiao, Shuqing, Bosin, Alexander, Lohmann, Gerrit
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Subjects:
Article
Arctic
Global warming
Sea ice
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9470582/
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33106-1
Description
Summary:Arctic sea ice retreat is linked to extrapolar thermal energy import, while the potential impact of pan-Arctic river heat discharge on sea-ice loss has been unresolved. We reconstructed the Holocene history of Arctic sea ice and Russian pan-Arctic river heat discharge, combining ice-rafted debris records and sedimentation rates from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf with a compilation of published paleoclimate and observational data. In the mid-Holocene, the early summer (June–July) solar insolation was higher than that during the late Holocene, which led to a larger heat discharge of the Russian pan-Arctic rivers and contributed to more Arctic sea ice retreat. This intensified decline of early-summer sea ice accelerated the melting of sea ice throughout the summertime by lowering regional albedos. Our findings highlight the important impact of the larger heat discharge of pan-Arctic rivers, which can reinforce Arctic sea-ice loss in the summer in the context of global warming.

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