Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 109, Issue 17, Pages 6417-6422Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1116014109
Keywords
abrupt climate transitions; Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
Categories
Funding
- Office of Science (BER), U.S. Department of Energy [DE-FC02-97ER62402]
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- National Science Foundation CAREER [OCE 0847605]
- NASA OSTST [NNX08AR62G]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [22101005] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Abrupt climate transitions, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, occurred frequently during the last glacial period, specifically from 80-11 thousand years before present, but were nearly absent during interglacial periods and the early stages of glacial periods, when major ice-sheets were still forming. Here we show, with a fully coupled state-of-the-art climate model, that closing the Bering Strait and preventing its throughflow between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans during the glacial period can lead to the emergence of stronger hysteresis behavior of the ocean conveyor belt circulation to create conditions that are conducive to triggering abrupt climate transitions. Hence, it is argued that even for greenhouse warming, abrupt climate transitions similar to those in the last glacial time are unlikely to occur as the Bering Strait remains open.
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