Southern Hemisphere westerly wind changes during the Last Glacial Maximum: model-data comparison

116

111

The Drake Passage (DP) is the major geographic constriction for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and exerts a strong control on the exchange of physical, chemical, and biological properties between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins. Resolving changes in the flow of circumpolar water masses through this gateway is, therefore, crucial for advancing our understanding of the Southern Ocean’s role in global ocean and climate variability. Here, we reconstruct changes in DP throughflow dynamics over the past 65,000 y based on grain size and geochemical properties of sediment records from the southernmost continental margin of South America. Combined with published sediment records from the Scotia Sea, we argue for a considerable total reduction of DP transport and reveal an up to ∼40% decrease in flow speed along the northernmost ACC pathway entering the DP during glacial times. Superimposed on this long-term decrease are high-amplitude, millennial-scale variations, which parallel Southern Ocean and Antarctic temperature patterns. The glacial intervals of strong weakening of the ACC entering the DP imply an enhanced export of northern ACC surface and intermediate waters into the South Pacific Gyre and reduced Pacific–Atlantic exchange through the DP (“cold water route”). We conclude that changes in DP throughflow play a critical role for the global meridional overturning circulation and interbasin exchange in the Southern Ocean, most likely regulated by variations in the westerly wind field and changes in Antarctic sea ice extent.

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

Glacial reduction and millennial-scale variations in Drake Passage throughflow

Lamy

Arz

Kilian

et al. 2015

116

111

“…1 to relate the changes in slope to changes in SO wind stress, δτ, and eddy diffusivity, δK. Paleoreconstructions and atmospheric models suggest that the strength of winds changed by less than 10% at the LGM either due to a few degrees poleward shift of the westerlies or a strengthening of the surface temperature gradient (44,45). However changes in δK tend to strongly compensate any increase/decrease in the winds (46-48):…”

Section: Glacial Deep Ocean Stratification and Circulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic sea ice control on ocean circulation in present and glacial climates

Ferrari

Jansen

Adkins

et al. 2014

345

502

Significance The ocean’s role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide on glacial–interglacial timescales remains an unresolved issue in paleoclimatology. Many apparently independent changes in ocean physics, chemistry, and biology need to be invoked to explain the full signal. Recent understanding of the deep ocean circulation and stratification is used to demonstrate that the major changes invoked in ocean physics are dynamically linked. In particular, the expansion of permanent sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere results in a volume increase of Antarctic-origin abyssal waters and a reduction in mixing between abyssal waters of Arctic and Antarctic origin.

“…Observational evidence, however, allows for an equatorward shift of at most about 3 • (18, 19), which in turn is here found to have negligible impact on the solution (experiment "LGM windN" in Table 1). Proxy observations and climate models instead indicate a slight poleward shift and strengthening of the surface westerlies over the Southern Ocean (18,19). A simulation incorporating a 3 • southward shift and 20% strengthening of the Southern Hemisphere westerlies shows a moderate increase in ice export and associated buoyancy loss around Antarctica (experiment "LGM windS" in Table 1).…”

Section: Sensitivity Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacial ocean circulation and stratification explained by reduced atmospheric temperature

Jansen

2016

Earth's climate has undergone dramatic shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods, with high-latitude temperature changes on the order of 5-10 • C. These climatic shifts have been associated with major rearrangements in the deep ocean circulation and stratification, which have likely played an important role in the observed atmospheric carbon dioxide swings by affecting the partitioning of carbon between the atmosphere and the ocean. The mechanisms by which the deep ocean circulation changed, however, are still unclear and represent a major challenge to our understanding of glacial climates. This study shows that various inferred changes in the deep ocean circulation and stratification between glacial and interglacial climates can be interpreted as a direct consequence of atmospheric temperature differences. Colder atmospheric temperatures lead to increased sea ice cover and formation rate around Antarctica. The associated enhanced brine rejection leads to a strongly increased deep ocean stratification, consistent with high abyssal salinities inferred for the last glacial maximum. The increased stratification goes together with a weakening and shoaling of the interhemispheric overturning circulation, again consistent with proxy evidence for the last glacial. The shallower interhemispheric overturning circulation makes room for slowly moving water of Antarctic origin, which explains the observed middepth radiocarbon age maximum and may play an important role in ocean carbon storage.LGM | AMOC | stratification | cooling | sea-ice T he deep ocean today is ventilated mainly by two water masses. North Atlantic deep water (NADW) is formed in the North Atlantic before flowing southward at a depth of about 2-3 km and eventually rising back up to the surface in the Southern Ocean. Antarctic bottom water (AABW) is formed around Antarctica and spreads northward into the abyssal basins. The AABW that makes it into the Atlantic then slowly upwells into the lower NADW before returning southward and resurfacing again around Antarctica (1, 2). The glacial equivalent of NADW was likely confined to shallower depths, leaving more of the deep Atlantic filled with water masses originating primarily from around Antarctica (3-5). Moreover, the two water masses appear more distinct, with less mixing between them (6).Multiple studies have pointed toward the potential importance of sea ice and surface buoyancy fluxes around Antarctica in controlling changes in the deep ocean stratification and circulation between the present and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (7-11). Specifically, we recently showed that enhanced buoyancy loss around Antarctica is expected to lead to an increase in the abyssal stratification, an upward shift of NADW, and a clearer separation between NADW and southward-flowing AABW (11)-all in agreement with inferences made for differences in circulation and stratification between the present and LGM (3,6,12,13). This gives rise to the hypothesis that strong cooling around Antarctica led to an increased net freezing...