Reconstructing Southern Ocean sea-ice dynamics on glacial-to-historical timescales
Reconstructing Southern Ocean sea-ice dynamics on glacial-to-historical timescales
Editor(s): Karen Kohfeld, Xavier Crosta, Alice Marzocchi, Juliane Müller, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Laurie Menviel, and Bjørg Risebrobakken
Sea ice is a critical component of the Earth system in that it regulates heat and gas exchange between the atmosphere and polar oceans; it modulates Southern Ocean upper and lower overturning cells and global ocean circulation; it influences surface ocean stratification, ocean productivity, and nutrient and carbon cycling; and it interacts with ice sheets and ice shelves. As Antarctic sea-ice cover is predicted to decrease in the next decades, it is essential for our Earth system models to be able to simulate the effects of this waning. However, currently both modern and paleo data–model intercomparisons display large differences in sea-ice extent and trends. This affects the ability of these models to project the effects of sea-ice changes on the atmosphere, deep-ocean circulation, and nutrient cycling. Reconstructions of changes in sea-ice concentrations are pivotal to understand how Antarctic sea ice changed in the past and how it influenced these physical and biogeochemical processes. Most previous paleoclimate reconstructions of Southern Ocean sea ice have focused on the Last Glacial Maximum time slice (CLIMAP, MARGO projects) or the Holocene and last interglacial periods (PAGES working group Sea Ice Proxies (SIP)).

This special issue arises from the efforts of an international PAGES working group called Cycles of Sea-Ice Dynamics in the Earth System (C-SIDE), which aims to (a) reconstruct sea-ice conditions in the Southern Ocean over the last 130 000 years, (b) compare these reconstructions with complementary paleo-environmental data documenting changes in the Southern Ocean, and (c) use these data along with model simulations to improve our understanding of Earth system processes. The C-SIDE working group has chosen the last glacial–interglacial cycle (or last 130 000 years) as a focus because this timescale allows us to evaluate the role of sea ice on major climate transitions including glacial inception, when carbon was sequestered in the ocean, and deglaciation, when ocean carbon reserves were released to the atmosphere. The time frame also encompasses the penultimate interglacial when Antarctica was c. 2 °C warmer than today – a useful “process” analogue for future warming scenarios. At this time, the working group has held two workshops (October 2018 in Vancouver, Canada, and August/September 2019 in Sydney, Australia) to achieve these goals.

This special issue invites papers on the topics of (a) new sea-ice reconstructions in the Southern Ocean using new and established proxies of changes in sea ice; (b) regional compilations of changes in sea-ice distributions during the last glacial–interglacial cycle; (c) studies comparing (new and published) sea-ice records with complementary records of changes in circulation, temperature, and nutrient or carbon cycling; and (d) model analysis and model–data comparison papers that provide insights into the key processes linking Southern Ocean sea-ice changes with ice sheet, atmosphere, and ocean dynamics, as well as biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. We strongly encourage submissions that focus on at least one full glacial–interglacial cycle but encourage submissions from other time spans as well.

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30 May 2023
Deglacial and Holocene sea-ice and climate dynamics in the Bransfield Strait, northern Antarctic Peninsula
Maria-Elena Vorrath, Juliane Müller, Paola Cárdenas, Thomas Opel, Sebastian Mieruch, Oliver Esper, Lester Lembke-Jene, Johan Etourneau, Andrea Vieth-Hillebrand, Niko Lahajnar, Carina B. Lange, Amy Leventer, Dimitris Evangelinos, Carlota Escutia, and Gesine Mollenhauer
Clim. Past, 19, 1061–1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1061-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1061-2023, 2023
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14 Feb 2023
Sea ice and productivity changes over the last glacial cycle in the Adélie Land region, East Antarctica, based on diatom assemblage variability
Lea Pesjak, Andrew McMinn, Zanna Chase, and Helen Bostock
Clim. Past, 19, 419–437, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-419-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-419-2023, 2023
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10 Aug 2022
Compilation of Southern Ocean sea-ice records covering the last glacial-interglacial cycle (12–130 ka)
Matthew Chadwick, Xavier Crosta, Oliver Esper, Lena Thöle, and Karen E. Kohfeld
Clim. Past, 18, 1815–1829, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1815-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1815-2022, 2022
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02 Aug 2022
Antarctic sea ice over the past 130 000 years – Part 1: a review of what proxy records tell us
Xavier Crosta, Karen E. Kohfeld, Helen C. Bostock, Matthew Chadwick, Alice Du Vivier, Oliver Esper, Johan Etourneau, Jacob Jones, Amy Leventer, Juliane Müller, Rachael H. Rhodes, Claire S. Allen, Pooja Ghadi, Nele Lamping, Carina B. Lange, Kelly-Anne Lawler, David Lund, Alice Marzocchi, Katrin J. Meissner, Laurie Menviel, Abhilash Nair, Molly Patterson, Jennifer Pike, Joseph G. Prebble, Christina Riesselman, Henrik Sadatzki, Louise C. Sime, Sunil K. Shukla, Lena Thöle, Maria-Elena Vorrath, Wenshen Xiao, and Jiao Yang
Clim. Past, 18, 1729–1756, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1729-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1729-2022, 2022
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20 Apr 2022
Evaluating seasonal sea-ice cover over the Southern Ocean at the Last Glacial Maximum
Ryan A. Green, Laurie Menviel, Katrin J. Meissner, Xavier Crosta, Deepak Chandan, Gerrit Lohmann, W. Richard Peltier, Xiaoxu Shi, and Jiang Zhu
Clim. Past, 18, 845–862, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-845-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-845-2022, 2022
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14 Mar 2022
Sea ice changes in the southwest Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean during the last 140 000 years
Jacob Jones, Karen E. Kohfeld, Helen Bostock, Xavier Crosta, Melanie Liston, Gavin Dunbar, Zanna Chase, Amy Leventer, Harris Anderson, and Geraldine Jacobsen
Clim. Past, 18, 465–483, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-465-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-465-2022, 2022
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02 Mar 2022
Summer sea-ice variability on the Antarctic margin during the last glacial period reconstructed from snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) stomach-oil deposits
Erin L. McClymont, Michael J. Bentley, Dominic A. Hodgson, Charlotte L. Spencer-Jones, Thomas Wardley, Martin D. West, Ian W. Croudace, Sonja Berg, Darren R. Gröcke, Gerhard Kuhn, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Louise Sime, and Richard A. Phillips
Clim. Past, 18, 381–403, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-381-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-381-2022, 2022
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24 Jan 2022
Reconstructing Antarctic winter sea-ice extent during Marine Isotope Stage 5e
Matthew Chadwick, Claire S. Allen, Louise C. Sime, Xavier Crosta, and Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Clim. Past, 18, 129–146, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-129-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-129-2022, 2022
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29 Oct 2021
Evaluation of lipid biomarkers as proxies for sea ice and ocean temperatures along the Antarctic continental margin
Nele Lamping, Juliane Müller, Jens Hefter, Gesine Mollenhauer, Christian Haas, Xiaoxu Shi, Maria-Elena Vorrath, Gerrit Lohmann, and Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
Clim. Past, 17, 2305–2326, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2305-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2305-2021, 2021
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07 Jun 2021
Impact of Southern Ocean surface conditions on deep ocean circulation during the LGM: a model analysis
Fanny Lhardy, Nathaëlle Bouttes, Didier M. Roche, Xavier Crosta, Claire Waelbroeck, and Didier Paillard
Clim. Past, 17, 1139–1159, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1139-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1139-2021, 2021
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11 Dec 2020
| Highlight paper
Sea ice dynamics in the Bransfield Strait, Antarctic Peninsula, during the past 240 years: a multi-proxy intercomparison study
Maria-Elena Vorrath, Juliane Müller, Lorena Rebolledo, Paola Cárdenas, Xiaoxu Shi, Oliver Esper, Thomas Opel, Walter Geibert, Práxedes Muñoz, Christian Haas, Gerhard Kuhn, Carina B. Lange, Gerrit Lohmann, and Gesine Mollenhauer
Clim. Past, 16, 2459–2483, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2459-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2459-2020, 2020
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