Evidence for solar forcing of sea-surface temperature on the North Icelandic Shelf during the late Holocene
- Hui Jiang*1,
- Jón Eiríksson*2,
- Michael Schulz*3,
- Karen-Luise Knudsen*4 and
- Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz*4
- 1Laboratory of Geographic Information Science, East China Normal University, 200062 Shanghai, People's Republic of China, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, C.F. Møllers Allé 120, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark
- 2Earth Science Institute, University of Iceland, Askja, IS-101-Reykjavík, Iceland
- 3Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Klagenfurter Strasse, D-28334 Bremen, Germany
- 4Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, C.F. Møllers Allé 120, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark
Abstract
Diatom proxies from the modern position of the oceanographic Polar Front north of Iceland record variability in sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) during the past 2 k.y. The sedimentary record is dated with tephrochronology, alleviating marine 14C reservoir age uncertainties. Comparison of changes in SSTs on the North Icelandic Shelf with variations in the atmospheric circulation above Greenland, North American Atlantic coastal SSTs, and mean temperature anomalies for the Northern Hemisphere suggests synchronous North Atlantic–wide fluctuations, which would seem to imply a common forcing factor. A positive and significant correlation between our SST record from the North Icelandic Shelf and reconstructed solar irradiance, together with modeling results, supports the hypothesis that solar forcing is an important constituent of natural climate variability in the northern North Atlantic region.
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- Received 19 August 2004.
- Accepted 22 September 2004.
- Revision received 17 September 2004.
- Geological Society of America
