Abstract

The last deglacial climate evolution, from 19 to 9 thousand years before the present, represents the vital role of feedback in the Earth’s climate system. The Southern Ocean played a fundamental role by exchanging nutrients and carbon-rich deep ocean water with the surface during the last deglaciation. This study employs a fully coupled Earth system model to investigate the evolution of Southern Ocean dynamics and the roles of changes in orbital and meltwater forcings during the last deglaciation. The simulation supports that the Southern Ocean upwelling was primarily driven by windstress. The results show that the melting and formation of Antarctic sea ice feedback influenced Southern Ocean surface buoyancy flux. The increase in Antarctic sea ice melt-induced freshwater flux resulted in a steepened north-south surface salinity gradient in the Southern Ocean, which enhanced the upwelling. The single-forcing experiments indicate that the deglacial changes in orbital insolation influenced the Southern Ocean upwelling. The experiments also highlight the dominant role of Northern Hemisphere meltwater discharge in the upper and lower branch of the Meridional Overturning Circulation. Furthermore, orbital forcing shows lesser deglacial Antarctic sea ice retreat than the Northern Hemisphere meltwater forcing, which follows the bipolar seesaw mechanism.

Highlights

  • IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

  • We showed that the depth-integrated Eulerian mean upwelling reasonably showed that the deglacial changes in the Southern Ocean upwelling were in agreement with proxy records and numerical simulations

  • Our results show that the TraCE-21ka simulations agreed with the wind-driven Southern Ocean upwelling hypothesis

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Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Numerous studies have shown that changes in orbital insolation played a significant role in driving the Earth’s glacial-interglacial cycles [1–3]. Previous studies have suggested that an increase in mid-latitude to high-latitude Northern Hemisphere (NH). Spring-summer insolation triggered the last deglaciation [3–6]. The meltwater discharge from continental ice sheets retreat weakened the Atlantic Meridional Overturning

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