P2C2: Collaborative Research: The Role of Seasonality in Abrupt Climate Change - a Test by Reconstructing Fluctuations of a Late-Glacial Ice Mass in Eastern North America

This research aims to determine the signature of summer-warming-driven ice retreat and meltwater production by reconstructing the behavior of an ice cap that persisted in northwestern Maine during the end of the last ice age. By mapping and dating glacial landforms documenting the pattern and timing of Maine ice-cap recession, as well as by reconstructing meltwater fluxes from the decaying ice cap in the Gulf of Maine on the basis of marine sediment geochemistry, the researchers will evaluate whether this ice cap system fluctuated in concert with the abrupt climate changes as registered in Greenlandic ice cores, or whether it retreated during the North Atlantic stadial episodes, reflecting summertime warming and hence intense seasonality.

Informed by these geological reconstructions of glacier and meltwater change, the researchers will employ an Earth System Model to evaluate the effects of warming-induced meltwater fluxes on seasonality in the North Atlantic region. Clarifying the role of seasonality in abrupt climate change will have important implications for deciphering the origins of abrupt climate change and will help to hone understanding of the global climate dynamics that brought the ice age to an end.

The overall research effort will provide field-based training and education for the next generation of scientists at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as in-depth enhanced public engagement in cooperation with Maine’s Baxter State Park, home of Katahdin, the highest mountain in the region and the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. The researchers will work closely with the Baxter Park Authority on innovative ways to educate the public about the intertwined glacial and climatic history of the region and its greater global context.

Specific objectives include developing 3D-printed landscape models, which will be displayed along with educational placards at park venues. The researchers will also collaborate with a New Media team to develop an informative smartphone app that can be used throughout the park.

The termination of the last ice age featured a spectacular series of abrupt climate oscillations. In the North Atlantic region, ice cores recorded abrupt switches between ‘stadial’ intervals, such as ‘Heinrich Stadial 1’ (HS1; ~18,000 – 14,700 kyr ago) and the ‘Younger Dryas’ (YD; ~12,800 – 11,600 kyr ago), which were characterized by cold mean-annual temperatures, and the intervening Bølling-Allerød ‘interstade’ (B-A; 14,700 – 12,800 kyr ago) that was characterized by warmer mean-annual temperatures.

However, emerging evidence in the North Atlantic region indicates that, because of surface-ocean freshening and sea-ice formation, the signature of mean-annual temperatures in Greenlandic ice cores may reflect episodes of extreme seasonality during stadials, with severe sea-ice-induced winter cooling masking a divergent trend of summertime warming. Because glaciers are highly sensitive to summer temperatures, records of glacier change during the termination of the last ice age can therefore be used to evaluate the role of seasonality in abrupt climate change.

To test the seasonality hypothesis, the researchers will use a combination of geomorphic mapping, terrestrial glacial geochronology, and marine sediment geochemistry to reconstruct both the vertical thinning and lateral retreat of the Maine ice cap and the relative pattern of meltwater release into the Gulf of Maine. Mapping will be aided by recently acquired high-resolution LiDAR elevation data, and the terrestrial chronology will be underpinned by 10Be surface-exposure dating of glacial landforms and 14C dating lacustrine sediments.

Foraminiferal trace-metal measurements will be paired with δ18O to reconstruct meltwater fluxes into the Gulf of Maine. The results of this work will be used to determine whether or not glacial ice receded during HS1 and then stabilized during B-A time, as predicted by the seasonality hypothesis and consistent with the pattern of surface-freshening registered in North Atlantic sediments.

Glacier and meltwater reconstructions will serve as metrics for a GFDL suite of Earth system models employed to test the response of the North Atlantic seasonal cycle to imposed summer atmospheric warming and freshwater fluxes, affording a data-model test of the seasonality hypothesis for abrupt climate change.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.