Background:
Ice core records show that there is a systematic relationship between Antarctic Isotope Maximum (AIM) events in Antarctica and Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events in the North Atlantic. All prominent DO events have an AIM counterpart; the warming stage of AIM events typically coincides with the cold, stadial stage of DO events [EPICA cm 2006]. The AIM signals are also expressed in proxies of southern ocean surface temperature [Bostock et al, 2014] and southern-sourced deepwater ventilation and production [e.g. Piotrowski et al., 2008].
While the systematic phasing of AIM and DO events implies that they are somehow coupled, it does not specify how they are coupled or from where or by what they are triggered.
Purpose of the workshop will be to:
(1) familiarise ourselves with records of climate variability at high southern latitudes during MIS3;
(2) discuss possible mechanisms/models which might explain the phasing of these records with respect to the DO cycles; and
(3) reject hypotheses which do not satisfy the observations.
A review paper on Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and the bipolar seesaw during MIS3 will be written based on the outcome of the workshop.
Dates: February 2nd – 3rd, 2015
Venue: University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Workshop coordinators:
Joel Pedro (University of Copenhagen) and Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu (University of Bergen)