Holocene oscillations in temperature and salinity of the surface subpolar North Atlantic

David J. R. Thornalley (), Harry Elderfield and I. Nick McCave
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David J. R. Thornalley: The Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
Harry Elderfield: The Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
I. Nick McCave: The Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK

Nature, 2009, vol. 457, issue 7230, 711-714

Abstract: Hot and cold running Atlantic The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a control on global climate, helping to maintain a warm northwestern European climate by transporting warm, salty surface waters to high latitudes, where they cool, sink and return southwards at depth. The past behaviour of this northerly flow of surface water is not well understood. Thornalley et al. investigated the temperature and salinity changes of surface water inflow to a region of deepwater formation throughout the Holocene. They find that the inflow has undergone millennial-scale variations in temperature and salinity that correlate with previously reported periods of rapid climate change. The inflow becomes more saline during enhanced freshwater flux to the subpolar North Atlantic. Model studies predict a weakening of AMOC in response to enhanced Arctic freshwater fluxes, although the inflow can compensate on decadal timescales by becoming more saline. The new data suggest that such a negative feedback mechanism may have operated during past intervals of climate change.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07717

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