Compilation of Southern Ocean sea-ice records covering the last glacial-interglacial cycle (12–130 ka)
Chadwick M, et al. from the Cycles of Sea-Ice Dynamics in the Earth system (C-SIDE) working group have published a paper in Climate of the Past on "Compilation of Southern Ocean sea-ice records covering the last glacial-interglacial cycle (12–130 ka)."
In their paper, the authors present "28 published qualitative and quantitative estimates of G-IG (last glacial-interglacial cycle (12 000–130 000 years)) sea ice from 24 marine sediment cores and an Antarctic ice core. Sea ice is reconstructed from the sediment core records using diatom assemblages and from the ice core record using sea-salt sodium flux."
They find that while all regions of the Southern Ocean show the same general pattern in G-IG sea-ice variations, "the magnitudes and timings vary between regions". They conclude that "the differing sensitivities of sea ice to climatic shifts between different regions of the Southern Ocean has important implications for the spatial pattern of nutrient supply and primary productivity, which subsequently impact carbon uptake and atmospheric CO2 concentrations changes across a G-IG cycle" and end their paper with a series of outstanding questions and areas for further research.
This work was conducted as part of Phase 1 of the Cycles of Sea-Ice Dynamics in the Earth system (C-SIDE) PAGES scientific working group and was supported by a PAGES Data Stewardship Scholarship (DSS_105) to MC and a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (#RGPIN342251) to KEK.
> Find out more about the Cycles of Sea-Ice Dynamics in the Earth system (C-SIDE) working group
> Find out more about the PAGES Data Stewardship Scholarship