TY - JOUR
T1 - Marine conditions and development of the Sirius Water polynya on the North-East Greenland shelf during the Younger Dryas-Holocene
AU - Jackson, Rebecca
AU - Andreasen, Nanna
AU - Oksman, Mimmi
AU - Andersen, Thorbjørn J.
AU - Pearce, Christof
AU - Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig
AU - Ribeiro, Sofia
N1 - Funding Information:
RJ is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 846142. The project received support from GEOCENTER Denmark (project GreenShift). The NorthGreen17 expedition was funded by the Danish Centre for Marine Research and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The project also received funding from the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF-Sapere Aude grant no. 9064-00039B to SRI, and grants no. 7014-00113B (G-Ice project) and 0135–00165B (GreenShelf), to MSS with additional funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 869383 (ECOTIP; AU/MSS as partner).
Funding Information:
RJ is funded by the European Union 's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 846142 . The project received support from GEOCENTER Denmark (project GreenShift). The NorthGreen17 expedition was funded by the Danish Centre for Marine Research and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada . The project also received funding from the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF-Sapere Aude grant no. 9064-00039B to SRI, and grants no. 7014-00113B (G-Ice project) and 0135–00165B (GreenShelf), to MSS with additional funding from the European Union 's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 869383 (ECOTIP; AU/MSS as partner).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - The Fram Strait is one of the largest gateways through which meltwater and sea ice are exported to the subarctic North Atlantic, transiting the North-East Greenland shelf via the southward flowing East Greenland Current. Observations indicate a recent freshening of the East Greenland Current that may have implications for wider oceanic circulation regimes. The North-East Greenland shelf is an opportune region to assess these changes back through time. Paleoceanographic reconstructions from the North-East Greenland shelf are sparse and their temporal coverage is limited to the Holocene, limiting our ability to assess the impact of rapid climatic variations on marine conditions, such as during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition. Here, we present data from a well-dated marine sediment core retrieved from the North-East Greenland shelf (74°N; east of Young Sound-Tyrolerfjord system) that captures the late Younger Dryas Stadial through to the Mid-Holocene at sub-centennial resolution. We apply a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct changes in productivity, surface and bottom ocean conditions. We show that at 74° N the presence of warm Atlantic waters on the inner North-East Greenland shelf was limited to the late Younger Dryas, as the Greenland Ice Sheet retreated landward and isostatic rebound caused the area to uplift. A unique dimension to this record is its location within one of the few biological hotspots on the East Greenland shelf today; the Sirius Water polynya. Archaeological studies indicate the polynya was forming as early as 4500 years ago, but nothing is known about its evolution from a marine perspective. Cooling of bottom waters, increasing sea-surface productivity and more frequent open water conditions indicate an Early Holocene onset of the Sirius Water (ca. 10–8.7 ka BP).
AB - The Fram Strait is one of the largest gateways through which meltwater and sea ice are exported to the subarctic North Atlantic, transiting the North-East Greenland shelf via the southward flowing East Greenland Current. Observations indicate a recent freshening of the East Greenland Current that may have implications for wider oceanic circulation regimes. The North-East Greenland shelf is an opportune region to assess these changes back through time. Paleoceanographic reconstructions from the North-East Greenland shelf are sparse and their temporal coverage is limited to the Holocene, limiting our ability to assess the impact of rapid climatic variations on marine conditions, such as during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition. Here, we present data from a well-dated marine sediment core retrieved from the North-East Greenland shelf (74°N; east of Young Sound-Tyrolerfjord system) that captures the late Younger Dryas Stadial through to the Mid-Holocene at sub-centennial resolution. We apply a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct changes in productivity, surface and bottom ocean conditions. We show that at 74° N the presence of warm Atlantic waters on the inner North-East Greenland shelf was limited to the late Younger Dryas, as the Greenland Ice Sheet retreated landward and isostatic rebound caused the area to uplift. A unique dimension to this record is its location within one of the few biological hotspots on the East Greenland shelf today; the Sirius Water polynya. Archaeological studies indicate the polynya was forming as early as 4500 years ago, but nothing is known about its evolution from a marine perspective. Cooling of bottom waters, increasing sea-surface productivity and more frequent open water conditions indicate an Early Holocene onset of the Sirius Water (ca. 10–8.7 ka BP).
KW - Dinocysts
KW - Foraminifera
KW - Greenland
KW - Holocene
KW - Micropaleontology
KW - North-East Greenland
KW - Paleoceanography
KW - Polynyas
KW - Sirius water polynya
KW - Younger dryas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135502948&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107647
DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107647
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135502948
SN - 0277-3791
VL - 291
JO - Quaternary Science Reviews
JF - Quaternary Science Reviews
M1 - 107647
ER -