A high-resolution radiolarian-derived paleotemperature record for the Late Pleistocene-Holocene in the Norwegian Sea

• Published in: Paleoceanography
• Main Authors: Dolven, Jk, Cortese, G, Bjorklund, Kr
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2002
• Subjects: geo; envir; Greenland; Norwegian Sea; ice core; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2002PA000780; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00223/33384/31894.pdf; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00223/33384/

Polycystine radiolarians are used to reconstruct summer sea surface temperatures (SSSTs) for the Late Pleistocene-Holocene (600-13,400 C-14 years BP) in the Norwegian Sea. At 13,200 C-14 years BP, the SSST was close to the average Holocene SSST (similar to12degreesC). It then gradually dropped to 7.1degreesC in the Younger Dryas. Near the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition (similar to10,000 C-14 years BP), the SSST increased 5degreesC in about 530 years. Four abrupt cooling events, with temperature drops of up to 2.1degreesC, are recognized during the Holocene: at 9340, 7100 ("8200 calendar years event''), 6400 and 1650 C-14 years BP. Radiolarian SSSTs and the isotopic signal from the GISP2 ice core are strongly coupled, stressing the importance of the Norwegian Sea as a mediator of heat/precipitation exchange between the North Atlantic, the atmosphere, and the Greenland ice sheet. Radiolarian and diatom-derived SSSTs display similarities, with the former not showing the recently reported Holocene cooling trend.