Wind-driven evolution of the North Pacific subpolar gyre over the last deglaciation

Funding: UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/N011716/1 (JWBR and AB). Tamaki Foundation, NASA (Grant NNX17AH56G), and NSF (Grant AGS-1929775) (RCJW). NERC Independent Research Fellowship NE/K008536/1 (RFI). North Pacific atmospheric and oceanic circulations are key missing pieces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Gray, William Robert, Wills, Robert CJ, Rae, James William Buchanan, Burke, Andrea, Ivanovic, Ruza F, Roberts, William HG, Ferreira, David, Valdes, Paul J
Other Authors: NERC, University of St Andrews. School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews. St Andrews Isotope Geochemistry
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
North Pacific
Deglaciation
Gyre circulation
Westerlies
Oxygen isotopes
Climate models
QC Physics
QE Geology
DAS
SDG 13 - Climate Action
QC
QE
Pacific
Ice Sheet
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10023/21638
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086328
Description
Summary:Funding: UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/N011716/1 (JWBR and AB). Tamaki Foundation, NASA (Grant NNX17AH56G), and NSF (Grant AGS-1929775) (RCJW). NERC Independent Research Fellowship NE/K008536/1 (RFI). North Pacific atmospheric and oceanic circulations are key missing pieces in our understanding of the reorganisation of the global climate system since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here, using a basin‐wide compilation of planktic foraminiferal δ18O, we show that the North Pacific subpolar gyre extended ~3° further south during the LGM, consistent with sea surface temperature and productivity proxy data. Climate models indicate that the expansion of the subpolar gyre was associated with a substantial gyre strengthening, and that these gyre circulation changes were driven by a southward shift of the mid‐latitude westerlies and increased wind‐stress from the polar easterlies. Using single‐forcing model runs, we show that these atmospheric circulation changes are a non‐linear response to ice‐sheet topography/albedo, and CO2. Our reconstruction indicates that the gyre boundary (and thus westerly winds) began to migrate northward at ~16.5 ka, driving changes in ocean heat transport, biogeochemistry, and North American hydroclimate. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed

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