Investigating North Atlantic circulation changes during Middle and Late Pleistocene interglacial periods

The North Atlantic is a key region for understanding global climate dynamics.

Variability in North Atlantic circulation has been linked with abrupt climate events during past warm periods (interglacials), including the current interglacial (Holocene, ~11.700-years - today), but the nature and causal mechanisms of these changes have not yet been fully elucidated.

This project will use a network of strategically located sites in the subpolar North Atlantic to investigate the spatial pattern of ocean changes during previous interglacials and explore their origin.

Different palaeoceanographic proxies, including faunal foraminiferal assemblages, ice-rafted debris, and sortable silt, as well as neodymium and carbon isotopes, will be used to investigate changes in the surface and deep ocean circulation for interglacial intervals of the last 450,000-years.

The combination of the above records will allow the identification of system thresholds as well as the underlying patterns and mechanisms involved in interglacial variability of ocean circulation on both short (i.e., centennial) and long (multi-millennial) timescales, and the mechanisms occurring during the onset and end of interglacials.

These constraints will provide new insights on the stability of North Atlantic circulation, informing climate model simulations and improving our ability to forecast abrupt climate change events.