Seasonal sea-ice in the Arctic's last ice area during the Early Holocene

According to climate models, the Lincoln Sea, bordering northern Greenland and Canada, will be the final stronghold of perennial Arctic sea-ice in a warming climate. However, recent observations of prolonged periods of open water raise concerns regarding its long-term stability. Modelling studies su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications Earth & Environment
Main Authors: Detlef, Henrieka, O'Regan, Matt, Stranne, Christian, Jensen, Mads Mørk, Glasius, Marianne, Cronin, Thomas M., Jakobsson, Martin, Pearce, Christof
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Sea ice
Holocene
Lincoln Sea
northern Greenland
northern Canda
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Canada
Greenland
Online Access:https://zenodo.org/record/7940611
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00720-w
Description
Summary:According to climate models, the Lincoln Sea, bordering northern Greenland and Canada, will be the final stronghold of perennial Arctic sea-ice in a warming climate. However, recent observations of prolonged periods of open water raise concerns regarding its long-term stability. Modelling studies suggest a transition from perennial to seasonal sea-ice during the Early Holocene, a period of elevated global temperatures around 10,000 years ago. Here we show marine proxy evidence for the disappearance of perennial sea-ice in the southern Lincoln Sea during the Early Holocene, which suggests a widespread transition to seasonal sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean. Seasonal sea-ice conditions were tightly coupled to regional atmospheric temperatures. In light of anthropogenic warming and Arctic amplification our results suggest an imminent transition to seasonal sea-ice in the southern Lincoln Sea, even if the global temperature rise is kept below a threshold of 2 °C compared to pre-industrial (1850–1900).

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