Warm summers during the Younger Dryas cold reversal

Frederik Schenk (), Minna Väliranta, Francesco Muschitiello, Lev Tarasov, Maija Heikkilä, Svante Björck, Jenny Brandefelt, Arne V. Johansson, Jens-Ove Näslund and Barbara Wohlfarth
Additional contact information
Frederik Schenk: Stockholm University
Minna Väliranta: University of Helsinki
Francesco Muschitiello: Stockholm University
Lev Tarasov: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Maija Heikkilä: University of Helsinki
Svante Björck: Stockholm University
Jenny Brandefelt: Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB)
Arne V. Johansson: Linné FLOW Centre, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Jens-Ove Näslund: Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB)
Barbara Wohlfarth: Stockholm University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The Younger Dryas (YD) cold reversal interrupts the warming climate of the deglaciation with global climatic impacts. The sudden cooling is typically linked to an abrupt slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in response to meltwater discharges from ice sheets. However, inconsistencies regarding the YD-response of European summer temperatures have cast doubt whether the concept provides a sufficient explanation. Here we present results from a high-resolution global climate simulation together with a new July temperature compilation based on plant indicator species and show that European summers remain warm during the YD. Our climate simulation provides robust physical evidence that atmospheric blocking of cold westerly winds over Fennoscandia is a key mechanism counteracting the cooling impact of an AMOC-slowdown during summer. Despite the persistence of short warm summers, the YD is dominated by a shift to a continental climate with extreme winter to spring cooling and short growing seasons.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04071-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04071-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04071-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().