Abstract
A data base of 236 reference sites throughout the North Atlantic and adjacent subpolar basins has been established to define the relations between the assemblages of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts and sea-surface conditions, and to develop transfer functions for quantitative reconstructions of past temperature, salinity and seasonal sea-ice cover extent. Transfer functions using the best analogue method were tested by reconstructing modern sea-surface conditions on the basis of the reference dinoflagellate cyst assemblages. The correlation between instrumental averages and reconstructed values ranges from 0.899 (August temperature) to 0.977 (annual duration of sea-ice cover). Most of the reconstructed temperature and salinity values (>90%) are within the range (1σ) of interannual variability and all estimates of the sea-ice cover extent are within the range of observations. These transfer functions appear, therefore, accurate for the reconstruction of sea-surface conditions in marginal marine environments of high latitude basins.
The tranfer functions have been applied to reconstruct changes in sea-surface conditions in epicontinental marine environments and subpolar basins. Results from sequences of the Labrador Sea indicate that during the last glacial maximum (isotopic stage 2), the seasonal extent of sea-ice cover varied between 7 and 9 months/yr., and that cool (1–5°C) and low saline (31–33‰) conditions prevailed in surface waters by the end of the summer season. Data from the endmember of the Gulf of St.Lawrence (Cabot Strait) reveal low sea-surface salinity, fluctuating between 24 and 26‰, from ca. 11,800 B.P. (opening of the Champlain Sea) to ca. 10,200 B.P in response to meltwater outflow from the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
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de Vernal, A., Rochon, A., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Turon, JL., Guiot, J. (1993). Quantitative Reconstruction of Sea-Surface Conditions, Seasonal Extent of Sea-Ice Cover and Meltwater Discharges in High Latitude Marine Environments from Dinoflagellate Cyst Assemblages. In: Peltier, W.R. (eds) Ice in the Climate System. NATO ASI Series, vol 12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85016-5_34
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