Sea Ice Control on Winter Subsurface Temperatures of the North Iceland Shelf During the Little Ice Age: A TEX86 Calibration Case Study. Issue 6 (26th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harning, David J.; Andrews, John T.; Belt, Simon T.; Cabedo‐Sanz, Patricia; Geirsdóttir, Áslaug; Dildar, Nadia; Miller, Gifford H.; Sepúlveda, Julio
• Is Part Of: Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. Volume 34:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 1006
• Page End: 1021
• Publication Date: 2019-06-26
• Subjects: North Iceland Shelf -- marine sediment -- Little Ice Age -- lipid biomarkers -- IP25 -- GDGTs; Paleoceanography -- Periodicals; Paleoclimatology -- Periodicals; 551.46
• DOI: 10.1029/2018PA003523
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2572-4517

Abstract

Abstract: Holocene paleoceanographic reconstructions along the North Iceland Shelf have employed a variety of sea surface temperature and sea ice proxies. However, these surface proxies tend to have a seasonal bias toward spring/summer and thus only provide a discrete snapshot of surface conditions during one season. Furthermore, sea surface temperature proxies can be influenced by additional confounding variables resulting in markedly different Holocene temperature reconstructions. Here, we expand Iceland's marine paleoclimate toolkit with TEX86 L : a temperature proxy based on the distribution of archaeal glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids. We develop a local Icelandic calibration from 21 surface sediment samples covering a wide environmental gradient across Iceland's insular shelves. Locally calibrated GDGT results demonstrate that (1) TEX86 L reflects winter subsurface (0–200 m) temperatures on the North Iceland Shelf and (2) our calibration produces more realistic temperature estimates with substantially lower uncertainty (S.E. ±4 °C) over global calibrations. We then apply this new calibration to a high‐resolution marine sediment core (last millennium) collected from the central NIS with age control constrained by 14 C‐dated mollusks. To test the veracity of the GDGT subsurface temperatures, we analyze quartz and calcite wt% and a series of highly branched isoprenoid alkenes, including the sea ice biomarker IP25, from the same core. The sediment records demonstrate that the development of thick sea ice during the Little Ice Age warmed the subsurface due to winter insulation. Importantly, this observation reflects a seasonal component of the sea ice/ocean feedback to be considered for the nonlinear cooling of the Little Ice Age in and around Iceland. Key Points: Our local Icelandic GDGT calibration produces more realistic temperature estimates with substantially lower uncertainty over broader spatial calibrations Periods of thick sea ice during the Little Ice Age likely warmed the subsurface as a result of winter insulation