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Variability of the North Atlantic Current during the last 2000 years based on shelf bottom water and sea surface temperatures along an open ocean/shallow marine transect in western Europe

University of Iceland, Iceland, jeir{at}hi.is

Helga Bára Bartels-Jónsdóttir

University of Aarhus, Denmark

Alix G. Cage

University of St Andrews, UK

Esther Ruth Gudmundsdóttir

University of Iceland, Iceland

Dorthe Klitgaard-Kristensen

Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway

Fabienne Marret

University of Liverpool, UK

Teresa Rodrigues

Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação, Portugal

Fatima Abrantes

Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação, Portugal

William E. N. Austin

University of St Andrews, UK

Hui Jiang

East China Normal University, P.R. China

Karen-Luise Knudsen

University of Aarhus, Denmark

Hans-Petter Sejrup

University of Bergen, Norway

Marine localities on the west European shelf have been studied to reconstruct the nearshore palaeoceanography of the last two millennia. The sites form a transect from the Iberian margin northeastward via Scotland to western Norway and Iceland. Proxies used for palaeoclimatic reconstructions include stable isotopes, benthic and planktonic foraminfera, diatoms, dinoflagellates, as well as geochemical and sedimentological parameters. Major changes as well as long-term trends in oceanographic conditions are observed in the records, including a general cooling trend through much of the last millennium. There is a clear linkage between the atmospheric processes and the oceanic circulation, and the ocean temperature variability in the records can be correlated with the so-called ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’ and ‘Little Ice Age’. These oscillations are, however, by no means unique within the last two millennia. As an example, sea surface temperatures to the north of Iceland and on the Iberian margin were higher in the Roman Warm Period than at any time during the ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’. However, the palaeoceanographic record generally supports a distinct cooling at the transition between the ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’ and the ‘Little Ice Age’. While a number of records indicate a warming of coastal and shelf waters during the last 200 years, the twentieth century does not appear to be unusual when the proxy records spanning the last two millennia are examined.

Key Words: North Atlantic Ocean • sea surface temperature • climate variability • palaeoceanography • North Atlantic Current • Holocene • HOLSMEER project

The Holocene, Vol. 16, No. 7, 1017-1029 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683606hl991rp


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