scholarly journals Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Gifford H. Miller ◽  
Áslaug Geirsdóttir ◽  
Yafang Zhong ◽  
Darren J. Larsen ◽  
Bette L. Otto-Bliesner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Abrupt Onset ◽  
Ice Age

scholarly journals Evidence for extreme export of Arctic sea ice leading the abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (38) ◽  
pp. eaba4320
Author(s):  
Martin W. Miles ◽  
Camilla S. Andresen ◽  
Christian V. Dylmer
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Abrupt Onset ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ocean Stratification ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Robust Evidence

Arctic sea ice affects climate on seasonal to decadal time scales, and models suggest that sea ice is essential for longer anomalies such as the Little Ice Age. However, empirical evidence is fragmentary. Here, we reconstruct sea ice exported from the Arctic Ocean over the past 1400 years, using a spatial network of proxy records. We find robust evidence for extreme export of sea ice commencing abruptly around 1300 CE and terminating in the late 1300s. The exceptional magnitude and duration of this “Great Sea-Ice Anomaly” was previously unknown. The pulse of ice along East Greenland resulted in downstream increases in polar waters and ocean stratification, culminating ~1400 CE and sustained during subsequent centuries. While consistent with external forcing theories, the onset and development are notably similar to modeled spontaneous abrupt cooling enhanced by sea-ice feedbacks. These results provide evidence that marked climate changes may not require an external trigger.

scholarly journals Amplified Inception of European Little Ice Age by Sea Ice–Ocean–Atmosphere Feedbacks

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 7586-7602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Lehner ◽  
Andreas Born ◽  
Christoph C. Raible ◽  
Thomas F. Stocker
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
Ice Growth ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere

Abstract The inception of the Little Ice Age (~1400–1700 AD) is believed to have been driven by an interplay of external forcing and climate system internal variability. While the hemispheric signal seems to have been dominated by solar irradiance and volcanic eruptions, the understanding of mechanisms shaping the climate on a continental scale is less robust. In an ensemble of transient model simulations and a new type of sensitivity experiments with artificial sea ice growth, the authors identify a sea ice–ocean–atmosphere feedback mechanism that amplifies the Little Ice Age cooling in the North Atlantic–European region and produces the temperature pattern suggested by paleoclimatic reconstructions. Initiated by increasing negative forcing, the Arctic sea ice substantially expands at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. The excess of sea ice is exported to the subpolar North Atlantic, where it melts, thereby weakening convection of the ocean. Consequently, northward ocean heat transport is reduced, reinforcing the expansion of the sea ice and the cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. In the Nordic Seas, sea surface height anomalies cause the oceanic recirculation to strengthen at the expense of the warm Barents Sea inflow, thereby further reinforcing sea ice growth. The absent ocean–atmosphere heat flux in the Barents Sea results in an amplified cooling over Northern Europe. The positive nature of this feedback mechanism enables sea ice to remain in an expanded state for decades up to a century, favoring sustained cold periods over Europe such as the Little Ice Age. Support for the feedback mechanism comes from recent proxy reconstructions around the Nordic Seas.

scholarly journals Search for the Little Ice Age in Southern Ocean Sea-Ice Records

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 221-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire L. Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Amundsen Sea ◽  
Ice Edge ◽  
Time Of Year ◽  
Sea Ice Edge ◽  
Eastern Weddell Sea

Records from the expeditions of Cook, Bellingshausen, Wilkes, and Ross in the late 18th and early 19th centuries have been examined for the information they provide on locations of the Southern Ocean sea-ice edge during the period of the late Little Ice Age in much of the Northern Hemisphere. When these locations are compared with satellite-derived ice edge locations in the mid 1970s, there is a suggestion of particularly heavy ice covers in the eastern Weddell Sea in December 1772, in the Amundsen Sea in March 1839, and perhaps, on the basis of an isolated observation, in a portion of the western Weddell Sea in January 1820. However, overall no strong Little Ice Age signal is found for the sea ice of the Southern Ocean. Many of the observations from the four expeditions indicate sea-ice edge locations that lie within the range of ice edge locations at the same time of year in the mid 1970s, and a few of the observations suggest a less extensive ice cover than in the 1970s.

scholarly journals The impact of past climate change on genetic variation and population connectivity in the Icelandic arctic fox

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1747) ◽  
pp. 4568-4573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Mellows ◽  
Ross Barnett ◽  
Love Dalén ◽  
Edson Sandoval-Castellanos ◽  
Anna Linderholm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Haplotype Diversity ◽  
Mitochondrial Control Region ◽  
Population Connectivity ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Arctic Fox ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
The Impact

Previous studies have suggested that the presence of sea ice is an important factor in facilitating migration and determining the degree of genetic isolation among contemporary arctic fox populations. Because the extent of sea ice is dependent upon global temperatures, periods of significant cooling would have had a major impact on fox population connectivity and genetic variation. We tested this hypothesis by extracting and sequencing mitochondrial control region sequences from 17 arctic foxes excavated from two late-ninth-century to twelfth-century AD archaeological sites in northeast Iceland, both of which predate the Little Ice Age (approx. sixteenth to nineteenth century). Despite the fact that five haplotypes have been observed in modern Icelandic foxes, a single haplotype was shared among all of the ancient individuals. Results from simulations within an approximate Bayesian computation framework suggest that the rapid increase in Icelandic arctic fox haplotype diversity can only be explained by sea-ice-mediated fox immigration facilitated by the Little Ice Age.

scholarly journals A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1321-1330 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. F. Schleussner ◽  
G. Feulner
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Regime Shift ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Subpolar Gyre

Abstract. Among the climatological events of the last millennium, the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Climate Anomaly succeeded by the Little Ice Age are of exceptional importance. The origin of these regional climate anomalies remains a subject of debate and besides external influences like solar and volcanic activity, internal dynamics of the climate system might have also played a dominant role. Here, we present transient last millennium simulations of the fully coupled model of intermediate complexity Climber 3α forced with stochastically reconstructed wind-stress fields. Our results indicate that short-lived volcanic eruptions might have triggered a cascade of sea ice–ocean feedbacks in the North Atlantic, ultimately leading to a persistent regime shift in the ocean circulation. We find that an increase in the Nordic Sea sea-ice extent on decadal timescales as a consequence of major volcanic eruptions in our model leads to a spin-up of the subpolar gyre and a weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, eventually causing a persistent, basin-wide cooling. These results highlight the importance of regional climate feedbacks such as a regime shift in the subpolar gyre circulation for understanding the dynamics of past and future climate.

scholarly journals Sea Ice Control on Winter Subsurface Temperatures of the North Iceland Shelf During the Little Ice Age: A TEX 86 Calibration Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1006-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Harning ◽  
John T. Andrews ◽  
Simon T. Belt ◽  
Patricia Cabedo‐Sanz ◽  
Áslaug Geirsdóttir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Subsurface Temperatures ◽  
Ice Control

scholarly journals A Paleoclimate Reconstruction of the Little Ice Age to Modern Era Climate Conditions in the Eastern Ross Sea, Antarctica as Captured in the RICE Ice Core

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hannah Brightley
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ross Sea ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Circulation Pattern ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Biological Productivity ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation Pattern ◽  
Ion Chromatograph ◽  
Modern Era

<p>The Little Ice Age (LIA) (1400-1850 AD) represents one of the most significant climatic shifts over the past 5000 years. Previous studies from Antarctica indicate generally cooler and stormier conditions during this period, but this pattern shows distinct spatial and temporal variability. The Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core provides a new opportunity to study the drivers behind this variability at annual/seasonal resolution, in a relatively under-sampled and climatically sensitive region in the eastern Ross Sea. Contrary to previous studies, isotope measurements suggest warm conditions during the LIA at Roosevelt Island.  This study presents analysis of eight major ions (Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, K⁺, MS⁻, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻) using both Ion Chromatograph and ICP-MS data, in order to reconstruct the atmospheric circulation pattern, sea ice extent and marine primary productivity across this LIA to Modern Era (ME) at Roosevelt Island. The dataset is tied to a robust age model allowing annual dating and the opportunity to accurately reconstruct rates of change during this ME-LIA. Challenges revolving around the calibration of the Ion Chromatograph are also discussed. The major ion record determines whether the lack of cooling in the Roosevelt Island core implied by the stable isotopes represents a true temperature anomaly or whether the atmospheric circulation pattern caused an isotopic enrichment that masks an underlying cooling.  It was determined that Roosevelt Island experienced during the LIA (i) an increase in marine air mass intrusions along with weaker katabatic winds compared to the 200 years prior, (ii) decreased biological productivity and (iii) increased sea ice. From the 1850-1880s to 1992 AD, there is a shift to reduced marine winds, increased katabatics, increased biological productivity and decreased sea ice until 1992. In the wider Ross Sea context, this suggests an east-west divide in terms of the dominance of katabatics versus marine wind influence. This divide is attributed with the warming signal seen in the RICE record in the Eastern Ross Sea and the cooling in the Western Ross Sea records. It is also likely linked to the influence of climate indices on the depth/position of the Amundsen Sea Low.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of Volcanic Eruptions on Decadal to Centennial Fluctuations of Arctic Sea Ice Extent during the Last Millennium and on Initiation of the Little Ice Age

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 2145-2167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Slawinska ◽  
Alan Robock
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Last Millennium ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Decadal Scale ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Extent

This study evaluates different hypotheses of the origin of the Little Ice Age, focusing on the long-term response of Arctic sea ice and oceanic circulation to solar and volcanic perturbations. The authors analyze the Last Millennium Ensemble of climate model simulations carried out with the Community Earth System Model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The authors examine the duration and strength of volcanic perturbations, and the effects of initial and boundary conditions, such as the phase of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. They evaluate the impacts of these factors on decadal-to-multicentennial perturbations of the cryospheric, oceanic, and atmospheric components of the climate system. The authors show that, at least in the Last Millennium Ensemble, volcanic eruptions are followed by a decadal-scale positive response of the Atlantic multidecadal overturning circulation, followed by a centennial-scale enhancement of the Northern Hemispheric sea ice extent. It is hypothesized that a few mechanisms, not just one, may have to play a role in consistently explaining such a simulated climate response at both decadal and centennial time scales. The authors argue that large volcanic forcing is necessary to explain the origin and duration of Little Ice Age–like perturbations in the Last Millennium Ensemble. Other forcings might play a role as well. In particular, prolonged fluctuations in solar irradiance associated with solar minima potentially amplify the enhancement of the magnitude of volcanically triggered anomalies of Arctic sea ice extent.

scholarly journals Recurrent transitions to Little Ice Age-like climatic regimes over the Holocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuli Helama ◽  
Markus Stoffel ◽  
Richard J. Hall ◽  
Phil D. Jones ◽  
Laura Arppe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
Tree Ring Data

AbstractHolocene climate variability is punctuated by episodic climatic events such as the Little Ice Age (LIA) predating the industrial-era warming. Their dating and forcing mechanisms have however remained controversial. Even more crucially, it is uncertain whether earlier events represent climatic regimes similar to the LIA. Here we produce and analyse a new 7500-year long palaeoclimate record tailored to detect LIA-like climatic regimes from northern European tree-ring data. In addition to the actual LIA, we identify LIA-like ca. 100–800 year periods with cold temperatures combined with clear sky conditions from 540 CE, 1670 BCE, 3240 BCE and 5450 BCE onwards, these LIA-like regimes covering 20% of the study period. Consistent with climate modelling, the LIA-like regimes originate from a coupled atmosphere–ocean–sea ice North Atlantic-Arctic system and were amplified by volcanic activity (multiple eruptions closely spaced in time), tree-ring evidence pointing to similarly enhanced LIA-like regimes starting after the eruptions recorded in 1627 BCE, 536/540 CE and 1809/1815 CE. Conversely, the ongoing decline in Arctic sea-ice extent is mirrored in our data which shows reversal of the LIA-like conditions since the late nineteenth century, our record also correlating highly with the instrumentally recorded Northern Hemisphere and global temperatures over the same period. Our results bridge the gaps between low- and high-resolution, precisely dated proxies and demonstrate the efficacy of slow and fast components of the climate system to generate LIA-like climate regimes.

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