TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of the Bering Strait on the hysteresis of the ocean conveyor belt circulation and glacial climate stability
AU - Hu, Aixue
AU - Meehl, Gerald A.
AU - Han, Weiqing
AU - Timmermann, Axel
AU - Otto-Bliesner, Bette
AU - Liu, Zhengyu
AU - Washington, Warren M.
AU - Large, William
AU - Abe-Ouchi, Ayako
AU - Kimoto, Masahide
AU - Lambeck, Kurt
AU - Wu, Bingyi
PY - 2012/4/24
Y1 - 2012/4/24
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Abrupt climate transitions
KW - Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84860136105
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1116014109
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1116014109
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84860136105
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 109
SP - 6417
EP - 6422
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 17
ER -