Enhanced North Pacific subtropical gyre circulation during the late Holocene

Yancheng Zhang (), Xufeng Zheng, Deming Kong, Hong Yan and Zhonghui Liu ()
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Yancheng Zhang: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University
Xufeng Zheng: State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University
Deming Kong: College of Ocean and Meteorology, Guangdong Ocean University
Hong Yan: Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhonghui Liu: The University of Hong Kong

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre circulation redistributes heat from the Western Pacific Warm Pool towards the mid- to high-latitude North Pacific. However, the driving mechanisms of this circulation and how it changed over the Holocene remain poorly understood. Here, we present alkenone-based sea surface temperature reconstructions along the Kuroshio, California and Alaska currents that cover the past ~7,000 years. These and other paleorecords collectively demonstrate a coherent intensification of the boundary currents, and thereby the basin-scale subtropical gyre circulation, since ~3,000–4,000 years ago. Such enhanced circulation during the late Holocene appears to have resulted from a long-term southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, associated with Holocene ocean cooling. Our results imply that the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre circulation could be weakened under future global warming.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26218-7

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