Abstract
The Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds are among the most important drivers of recently observed environmental changes in West Antarctica. However, the lack of long-term wind records in this region hinders our ability to assess the long-term context of these variations. Ice core proxy records yield valuable information about past environmental changes, although current proxies present limitations when aiming to reconstruct past winds. Here we present the first regional wind study based on the novel use of diatoms preserved in Antarctic ice cores. We assess the temporal variability in diatom abundance and its relation to regional environmental parameters spanning a 20-year period across three sites in the southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. Correlation analyses reveal that the temporal variability of diatom abundance from high elevation ice core sites is driven by changes in wind strength over the core of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind belt. Validating the use of diatoms preserved in ice cores from the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land as a proxy for reconstructing past variations in wind strength over the Pacific sector of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind belt.
Highlights
Winds over the Southern Ocean play a key role in driving the exchange of heat and carbon dioxide 20 between the ocean and atmosphere (Russell et al, 2006; Quéré et al, 2007; Hodgson and Sime, 2010; Landschutzer et al 2015)
3 Results 3.1 Jurassic ice core (JUR) 150 3.1.1 Chemistry, Microparticle Concentration (MPC) and diatom abundance annual records The JUR chemical, MPC and diatom abundance records are characterized by positive trends during the 1992-2012 CE period (Figure 2)
We propose an exciting new wind proxy, based on marine diatoms, that performs better than traditional ice core wind proxies in ice cores from the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land
Summary
Winds over the Southern Ocean (circumpolar westerlies) play a key role in driving the exchange of heat and carbon dioxide 20 between the ocean and atmosphere (Russell et al, 2006; Quéré et al, 2007; Hodgson and Sime, 2010; Landschutzer et al 2015). The circumpolar wind belt has increased in strength and has shifted towards the Antarctic continent, constituting one of the strongest climatic trends in the Southern Hemisphere (Thompson and Solomon, 2002, Gille et al 2008, Young et al 2011). These atmospheric changes have been linked as drivers of the widespread warming observed in the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) (Thomas et al, 2009; Thomas and Tetzner, 2018; Turner et al, 2020) and West Antarctica (WA) 25 (Thomas et al 2013) and as the mechanism behind the enhanced upwelling of deep and relatively warm, CO2-rich, oceanic water (Nakayama et al, 2018).
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