Sea-ice response to climate change in the Bering Sea during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

Worne, S ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7967-0864, Stroynowski, Z, Kender, S and Swann, GEA, 2021. Sea-ice response to climate change in the Bering Sea during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Quaternary Science Reviews, 259: 106918. ISSN 0277-3791

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Abstract

Sea-ice is believed to be an important control on climatic changes through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 0.6–1.2 Ma). However, the low resolution/short timescale of existing reconstructions prevents a full evaluation of these dynamics. Here, diatom assemblages from the Bering Sea are used to investigate sea-ice evolution on millennial timescales. We find that sea-ice was primarily controlled by ice-sheet/sea level fluctuations that modulated warm water flow into the Bering Sea. Facilitated by an amplified Walker circulation, sea-ice expansion began at ∼1.05 Ma with a step-increase during the 900 kyr event. Maximal pack ice was simultaneous with glacial maxima, suggesting sea-ice was responding to, rather than modulating ice-sheet dynamics, as proposed by the sea-ice switch hypothesis. Significant pack ice, coupled with Bering Strait closure at 0.9 Ma, indicates that brine rejection played an integral role in the glacial expansion/deglacial collapse of intermediate waters during the MPT, regulating subarctic ocean-atmospheric exchanges of CO2.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Quaternary Science Reviews
Creators:	Worne, S., Stroynowski, Z., Kender, S. and Swann, G.E.A.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	1 May 2021
Volume:	259
ISSN:	0277-3791
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106918 DOI 1593237 Other
Rights:	Crown Copyright © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	25 Aug 2022 14:32
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2022 14:32
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46919

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