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

• 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: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Sea ice; Holocene; Lincoln Sea; northern Greenland; northern Canda; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00720-w

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).