Search

This paper presents the first continuous (gap-free) Late Glacial-Early Holocene (LGEH) pollen record for the Iberian Pyrenees resolved at centennial resolution. The main aims are (i) to provide a standard chronostratigraphic correlation framework, (ii) to unravel the relationships between vegetation shifts, climatic changes and fire, and (iii) to obtain a regional picture of LGEH vegetation for the Pyrenees and the surrounding lowlands. Seven pollen assemblage zones were obtained and correlated with the stadial/interstadial phases of the Greenland ice cores that serve as a global reference. Several well-dated datums were also derived for keystone individual taxa that are useful for correlation purposes. Four vegetation types were identified, two of them corresponding to conifer and deciduous forests (Cf, Df) and two representing open vegetation types (O1, O2) with no modern analogs, dominated by Artemisia-Poaceae and Saxifraga-Cichorioideae, respectively. Forests dominated during interstadial phases (Bølling/Allerød and Early Holocene), whereas O1 dominated during stadials (Oldest Dryas and Younger Dryas), with O2 being important only in the first half of the Younger Dryas. The use of pollen-independent proxies for temperature and moisture allowed the reconstruction of paleoclimatic trends and the responses of the four vegetation types defined. The most relevant observation in this sense was the finding of wet climates during the Younger Dryas, which challenges the traditional view of arid conditions for this phase on the basis of former pollen records. Fire incidence was low until the Early Holocene, when regional fires were exacerbated, probably due to the combination of higher temperatures and forest biomass accumulation. These results are compared with the pollen records available for the whole Pyrenean range and the surrounding lowlands within the framework of elevational, climatic and biogeographical gradients. Some potential future developments are suggested on the basis of the obtained results, with an emphasis on the reconsideration of the LGEH spatiotemporal moisture patterns and the comparison of the Pyrenees with other European ranges from different climatic and biogeographical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research suggests that head‐mounted displays (HMD) can spark situational interest when they are used to provide science learning experiences that are not possible in traditional classroom settings. However, few studies have investigated the lasting effects of using HMDs in an authentic instructional intervention. Objectives: We investigated the effects of a one‐time experience of a virtual field trip to Greenland in a sample of 105 middle school students. Methods: Students used either a standard 2D video (video condition; N = 50) or an HMD (HMD condition; N = 55) as part of a six‐lesson educational activity on the topic of climate change. Informed by social cognitive career theory (SCCT), we investigated the effects of the different conditions (video vs. HMD) on the outcomes of self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, interest, and science intentions across three time points. Results and Conclusions: The results showed that using the HMD‐based virtual field trip, compared to the video, had a positive immediate effect on self‐efficacy and interest, and total later effects on self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest an average of two and a half weeks after the virtual field trip. The results suggest that HMD‐based virtual field trips can influence self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest more than a video‐based virtual field trip when measured approximately two and a half weeks after the intervention. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: Social Cognitive Career Theory provides a framework for understanding students' learning.Few studies have examined the effect of head‐mounted displays on science interest in the framework of Social Cognitive Career Theory. What this paper adds: The results suggest that virtual field trips based in head‐mounted display can foster self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest more than video‐based virtual field trips. Implications of the findings for practitioners: Fostering learning through head‐mounted displays may increase students' interest in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fjord systems are transition zones between land and sea, resulting in complex and dynamic environments. They are of particular interest in theArctic as they harbour ecosystems inhabited by a rich range of species and provide many societal benefits. The key drivers of change in the European Arctic (i.e., Greenland, Svalbard, and Northern Norway) fjord socio-ecological systems are reviewed here, structured into five categories: cryosphere (sea ice, glacier mass balance, and glacial and riverine discharge), physics (seawater temperature, salinity, and light), chemistry (carbonate system, nutrients), biology (primary production, biomass, and species richness), and social (governance, tourism, and fisheries). The data available for the past and present state of these drivers, aswell as futuremodel projections, are analysed in a companion paper. Changes to the two drivers at the base of most interactions within fjords, seawater temperature and glacier mass balance, will have the most significant and profound consequences on the future of European Arctic fjords. This is because even though governance may be effective at mitigating/adapting to local disruptions caused by the changing climate, there is possibly nothing that can be done to halt the melting of glaciers, the warming of fjord waters, and all of the downstream consequences that these two changes will have. This review provides the first transdisciplinary synthesis of the interactions between the drivers of changewithinArctic fjord socio-ecological systems. Knowledge of what these drivers of change are, and how they interact with one another, should provide more expedient focus for future research on the needs of adapting to the changing Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea levels have been rising at an increasing rate in the past decades, due to the increased ocean temperatures and glacier melt caused by global warming. The continued increase in sea levels will result in large-scale impacts in coastal areas as they are submerged by the sea. Locations not able to bear the costs of implementing protection and adaptation measures will have to be abandoned, resulting in social, economic, and environmental losses. The most important mitigation goal for sea level rise is to reduce or possibly revert carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, given the magnitude and long time lag between emissions and impacts, new adaptation measures to reduce sea level rise should be proposed, developed and if possible, implemented. This paper suggests that submerged barriers or dams built in front of ice sheets and glaciers would contribute to reducing the ice melt in Greenland. The ten proposed barriers or dams in this paper could prevent the contribution to sea level rise by up to 5.3 m at a cost of US$ 0.275 billion a year. This is much lower when compared to adaptation measures to sea level rise around the world estimated to be US$ 1.4 trillion a year by 2100. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased insulation reduces the energy needed during operations, but this may be less than the energy required for the extra insulation material. If so, there must be an optimal insulation thickness. This paper describes the development of a tool to determine the optimal insulation thickness, including what parameters are decisive, and presents some results along with a discussion of the success criteria and limitations. To make these considerations manageable for regular practitioners, only the transmission heat loss through walls is calculated. Although the tool is universal, Greenland is used as an example, because of its extreme climatic conditions. The tool includes climate change, 10 locations and 8 insulation materials. It focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, considers oil and district heating as heating sources, and evaluates four different climate change scenarios expressed in terms of heating degree days. The system is sensitive to insulation materials with high CO2 emissions and heating sources with high emission factors. This is also the case where climate change has the highest impact on the insulation thickness. Using the basic criterion, emitting a minimum of CO2-eq, the Insulation Thickness Optimizer (ITO), generally identifies higher insulation thicknesses as optimal than are currently seen in practice and in most building regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centennial response of land‐terminating glaciers in Greenland to climate change is largely unknown. Yet, such information is important to understand ongoing changes and for projecting the future evolution of Arctic subpolar glaciers, meltwater runoff, and sediment fluxes. This paper analyses the topography, geomorphology, and sedimentology of prominent moraine ridges and the proglacial areas of ice cap outlet glaciers on the Qaanaaq peninsula (Piulip Nunaa). We determine geometric changes of glaciers since the neoglacial maximum; the Little Ice Age (LIA), and we compare glacier behaviour during the LIA with that of the present day. There has been very little change in the rate of volume loss of each outlet glacier since the LIA compared with the rate between 2000 and 2019. However, the percentage of each glacier that is likely composed of cold‐based ice has increased since the LIA, typically by 20%. The LIA moraines comprise subrounded, striated, and faceted clasts that evidence subglacial transport, and outwash plains, flutes, kames, and eskers that evidence subglacial motion and meltwater within temperate ice. Contrastingly, contemporary ice margins and their convex ice surfaces comprise pronounced primary foliation, ephemeral supraglacial drainage, sediment drapes from thrust plane fractures, and an absence of open crevasses and moulins. These calculations and observations together lead us to interpret that these outlet glaciers have transitioned towards an increasingly cold‐based thermal regime despite a warming regional climate. Thermal regime transitions control glacier dynamics and therefore should be incorporated into glacier evolution models, especially where polythermal glaciers prevail and where climate is changing rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variability and dynamics of the Asian monsoon (AM, hereafter indicates both of the summer and winter monsoons.) at orbital and millennial timescales has attracted wide interest. Chinese loess deposits, covering an area of ~500 × 103 km2 and with a thickness of several tens to more than three hundred meters, is an ideal continental archive to reconstruct AM variations during the Quaternary epoch. Over the past thirty years, since the earliest paper published in an international journal that linked the Asian monsoon and Chinese loess deposits, many studies have been undertaken focusing on this research topic. These results have greatly deepened our understanding of the variations of the AM climate and their driving mechanisms during the past ~2.6 Myr. In this paper, we emphasize recent progress on the AM variability and dynamics revealed by Chinese loess records; in particular, we discuss the reliability and precision of the timescale and the monsoon proxy indicators for the loess-paleosol sequences, which are two fundamental aspects for understanding AM behavior. We analyze what we know and discuss what we do not know about the AM. We refine the timescale for the typical loess-paleosol sequence in the central Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), which can be used as a new timescale to study palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes in the monsoonal Asia. We conclude that low-latitude insolation changes induced by precession, and global ice volume, temperature at high-latitudes, as well as sea-level changes forced variations of the AM at orbital time scales. High-latitude cooling events and low-latitude hydroclimate process at millennial time scales, such as climate changes associated with Heinrich events and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles in Northern Atlantic and Greenland, have also modulated AM variability. We suggest that high-latitude forcing of AM variations occurs through ocean and atmospheric circulation linkages, although the roles of atmospheric CO 2 , ocean and vegetation feedbacks need further investigation. In future study, high-resolution independent dating, novel proxy indices and transient numerical simulations are still basic tools to understand the loess deposition and AM variations that require considerably more work. Issues such as reliable spatial comparison and regional linkages of records (dependent on precise and accurate numerical chronologies), and quantitative reconstruction of the AM variations, should be given priority in the study the past climate change in Asia, and low-latitude hydroclimate process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

​​​​​​​Abrupt climate changes are defined as sudden climate changes that took place over tens to hundreds of years or recurred at millennial timescales; they are thought to involve processes that are internal to the climate system. By contrast, astronomically forced climate changes involve processes that are external to the climate system and whose multi-millennial quasi-periodic variations are well known from astronomical theory. In this paper, we re-examine the main climate variations determined from the U1308 North Atlantic marine record, which yields a detailed calving history of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets over the past 3.2 Myr. The magnitude and periodicity of the ice-rafted debris (IRD) events observed in the U1308 record allow one to determine the timing of several abrupt climate changes, the larger ones corresponding to the massive iceberg discharges labeled Heinrich events (HEs). In parallel, abrupt warmings, called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events, have been identified in the Greenland records of the last glaciation cycle. Combining the HE and DO observations, we study a complex mechanism giving rise to the observed millennial-scale variability that subsumes the abrupt climate changes of last 0.9 Myr. This process is characterized by the presence of Bond cycles, which group DO events and the associated Greenland stadials into a trend of increased cooling, with IRD events embedded into every stadial, the latest of these being an HE. These Bond cycles may have occurred during the last 0.9 Ma when Northern Hemisphere ice sheets reached their maximum extent and volume, thus becoming a major player in this time interval's climate dynamics. Since the waxing and waning of ice sheets during the Quaternary period are orbitally paced, we conclude that the abrupt climate changes observed during the Middle Pleistocene and Upper Pleistocene are therewith indirectly linked to the astronomical theory of climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: General knowledge on climate change effects and adaptation strategies has increased significantly in recent years. However, there is still a substantial information gap regarding the influence of climate change on infectious diseases and how these diseases should be identified. From a One Health perspective, zoonotic infections are of particular concern. The climate in Northern regions is changing faster than the global average. This study sought to identify climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIs) of relevance for humans and/or animals living in Northern regions. Inclusion criteria for CSIs were constructed using expert assessments. Based on these principles, 37 potential CSIs relevant for Northern regions were identified. A systematic literature search was performed in three databases using an explicit stepwise approach to determine whether the literature supports selection of these 37 potential CSIs., Results: In total, 1275 nominated abstracts were read and categorised using predefined criteria. Results showed that arthropod vector-borne diseases in particular are recognised as having potential to expand their distribution towards Northern latitudes and that tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis, midge-borne bluetongue and the parasitic infection fasciolosis can be classified as climate-sensitive. Many of the other potential CSIs considered are affected by extreme weather events, but could not be clearly classified as climate-sensitive. An additional literature search comparing awareness of climate influences on potential CSIs between 1997-2006 and 2007-2016 showed an increase in the number of papers mentioning effects of climate change., Conclusions: The four CSIs identified in this study could be targeted in a systematic surveillance programme in Northern regions. It is evident that climate change can affect the epidemiology and geographical range of many infectious diseases, but there were difficulties in identifying additional CSIs, most likely because other factors may be of equal or greater importance. However, climate-ecological dynamics are constantly under change, and therefore diseases may fall in or out of the climate-sensitive definition over time. There is increasing awareness in the literature of the effects of climate change on infectious diseases over time.

The release of new and updated sea-level rise (SLR) information, such as from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, needs to be better anticipated in coastal risk and adaptation assessments. This requires risk and adaptation assessments to be regularly reviewed and updated as needed, reflecting the new information but retaining useful information from earlier assessments. In this paper, updated guidance on the types of SLR information available is presented, including for sea-level extremes. An intercomparison of the evolution of the headline projected ranges across all the IPCC reports show an increase from the fourth and fifth assessments to the most recent "Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate" assessment. IPCC reports have begun to highlight the importance of potential high-end sea-level response, mainly reflecting uncertainties in the Greenland/Antarctic ice sheet components, and how this might be considered in scenarios. The methods that are developed here are practical and consider coastal risk assessment, adaptation planning, and long-term decision-making to be an ongoing process and ensure that despite the large uncertainties, pragmatic adaptation decisions can be made. It is concluded that new sealevel information should not be seen as an automatic reason for abandoning existing assessments, but as an opportunity to review (i) the assessment's robustness in the light of new science and (ii) the utility of proactive adaptation and planning strategies, especially over the more uncertain longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea surface temperature (SST) observations in the North Atlantic since 1870 reveal a region of enhanced warming off the northeastern coast of North America, and a region of cooling to the south of Greenland. It has been hypothesized that these adjacent SST trends are a result of long‐term changes in the buoyancy‐driven ocean circulation—a slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The impacts of these historical SST trends on the atmosphere are estimated using idealized atmospheric general circulation model experiments in which the global atmosphere is exposed to modern climatological forcing minus the aforementioned regional SST trends. The local response includes a negative North Atlantic Oscillation tendency and southward shift of the wind forcing for the subtropical gyre. Due to planetary wave propagation, the regional SST trends also induce a northward shift of the intertropical convergence zone over the Indian Ocean. Implications for climate feedbacks and projections are discussed. Plain Language Summary: The ocean surface is warming over most of the planet, with a couple of notable exceptions. One is over the North Atlantic Ocean, just south of Greenland, where the temperature of the ocean surface has actually been cooling by about 1°C since 1870. Nearby, extending off the northeastern coastline of North America is a region where the ocean surface has been warming much faster than the global ocean on average—by about 1.5°C since 1870. This side‐by‐side pair of accelerated warming and cooling trends is likely due to a slowdown of the ocean's overturning circulation, which carries large amounts of heat energy from the tropics toward the poles. This paper reveals the effects of those unusual ocean temperature trends in the North Atlantic on the atmospheric circulation using a computer model of the global atmosphere. The model simulations indicate that these ocean temperature trends are causing shifts in the jet stream, changing the way the winds propel the upper ocean currents, and even have impacts quite far away by moving the tropical rain belt northward in the Indian Ocean. Key Points: The impact of historical sea surface temperature trends in the North Atlantic since 1870 is simulated with a global atmospheric modelAdjacent warming and cooling trends in the North Atlantic Ocean induce a negative NAO‐like response and southward‐shifted gyre forcingPropagation of planetary waves away from the North Atlantic induces a northward‐shifted intertropical convergence zone in the Indian Ocean [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change threatens many well‐preserved archaeological sites in the Arctic. The paper presents the first Arctic multi‐threat assessment focusing on the Nuuk region of Greenland. The results suggest that the majority of the 336 known archaeological sites are already exposed to impacts from microbial degradation, permafrost thaw and vegetation, and that these impacts will increase over the next 80 years. Additional impacts from coastal erosion are only noted at a limited number of sites due to a predominant consolidated and uplifting coast. The applied methods represent an important first step to identify threatened sites and emphasize important data limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates potential biases between equilibrium climate sensitivity inferred from warming over the historical period (ECShist) and the climate system's true ECS (ECStrue). This paper focuses on two factors that could contribute to differences between these quantities. First is the impact of internal variability over the historical period: our historical climate record is just one of an infinity of possible trajectories, and these different trajectories can generate ECShist values 0.3 K below to 0.5 K above (5%–95% confidence interval) the average ECShist. Because this spread is due to unforced variability, I refer to this as the unforced pattern effect. This unforced pattern effect in the model analyzed here is traced to unforced variability in loss of sea ice, which affects the albedo feedback, and to unforced variability in warming of the troposphere, which affects the shortwave cloud feedback. There is also a forced pattern effect that causes ECShist to depart from ECStrue due to differences between today's transient pattern of warming and the pattern of warming at 2×CO2 equilibrium. Changes in the pattern of warming lead to a strengthening low-cloud feedback as equilibrium is approached in regions where surface warming is delayed: the Southern Ocean, eastern Pacific, and North Atlantic near Greenland. This forced pattern effect causes ECShist to be on average 0.2 K lower than ECStrue (~8%). The net effect of these two pattern effects together can produce an estimate of ECShist as much as 0.5 K below ECStrue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial changes have occurred in the Arctic Ocean in the last decades. Not only sea ice has retreated significantly, but also the ocean at middepth showed a warming tendency. By using simulations we identified a mechanism that intensifies the upward trend in ocean heat supply to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait. The reduction in sea ice export through Fram Strait induced by Arctic sea ice decline increases the salinity in the Greenland Sea, which lowers the sea surface height and strengthens the cyclonic gyre circulation in the Nordic Seas. The Atlantic Water volume transport to the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean is consequently strengthened. This enhances the warming trend of the Arctic Atlantic Water layer, potentially contributing to the Arctic "Atlantification." Our study suggests that the Nordic Seas can play the role of a switchyard to influence the heat budget of the Arctic Ocean. Plain Language Summary: The Arctic sea ice decline is among the key indications of climate change, which has strong impacts on the environment, human beings, and biodiversity. In this paper we found that the Arctic sea ice decline at the surface can even cause Arctic Ocean warming at middepth by intensifying the upward trend of ocean heat supply to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait. The Nordic Seas play the role of a switchyard for the involved processes: The sea ice decline reduces the sea ice export through Fram Strait, which further increases the salinity in the Greenland Sea. Consequently, in the Nordic Seas the sea surface height decreases and the gyre circulation strengthens. These changes then increase the Atlantic Water inflow to the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean, causing significant warming in the Atlantic Water layer of the Arctic Ocean. The changes in the ocean heat budget have strong implications on potential feedbacks to sea ice decline through basal melting in a future warming climate. The intensification of the Atlantic Water volume transport through Fram Strait can impact not only the Arctic heat budget but also potentially the nutrient budget and the primary production. Key Points: The decline of Arctic sea ice reduces its export, thus increasing the salinity in Greenland SeaThis reduces the sea surface height and speeds up the gyre circulation in Greenland and Nordic SeasThe consequently enhanced Atlantic Water transport intensifies the warming at Fram Strait and in the Arctic Ocean [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Archaeological research provides important insights into climate change adaptation. • Norse and Proto-Inuit cultures developed in different learning environments. • Different learning environments produce different responses to environmental change. • Archaeology offers evidence of multi-century information transmission and learning. Using archaeological, historical, and ethnographic analysis of Norse and Inuit toys and miniatures, this paper argues that legacies of childhood learning can create limits to climatic change adaptation and provide lessons from the past relevant today. In Medieval Greenland, Norse children played with objects that would have familiarised them with the expected norms and behaviours of farming, household activities, sailing and conflict, but not with hunting, which was a key omission given the fundamental importance of wild resources to successful climatic adaptation in Greenland after the climate shocks of the mid-13th century. The restricted range of toys combined with an instructional form of learning suggests a high degree of path dependence that limited adaptation to climatic change, and we know the Norse settlement ended with the conjunctures of the 15th century that included climatic change. Inuit children, by contrast, learnt highly adapted behaviours and technologies through objects that taught locally tuned hunting skills. Inuit approaches that prioritised unstructured learning time aided the development of creative skills and problem-solving capabilities, and the Inuit successfully navigated the climatic changes of the Little Ice Age in Greenland. This insight from the past has implications for our approaches to childhood learning in the 21st century and the unfolding climate crisis. Innovative approaches to childhood teaching and learning in the context of climate change adaptation could provide effective solutions, on a timescale commensurate with that of projected climate impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Preboreal (11.75–10.70 ka BP) is still the least paleogeographically studied time interval in the central part of the East European Plain. High-resolution multi-proxy studies of lacustrine sediments at the Seltso site located in the Desna River floodplain (Dnieper River basin) were conducted. Radiocarbon dating, loss-on-ignition determination, sedimentological and palynological studies and identification of Non-Pollen Palynomorphs in lacustrine sediments allow us to reconstruct changes in vegetation caused by rapid warming at the Younger Dryas–Holocene boundary, short-term climatic fluctuations within the Preboreal and subsequent resumption of warming. Initial Preboreal warming reached its maximum at about 11.5 ka BP when a relatively dry continental climate existed. Between 11.4 and 11.2 ka BP, a short-term cooling corresponding to the Preboreal Oscillation in Greenland occurred, as indicated by a significant reduction of woody vegetation and expansion of open plant communities. In the Late Preboreal, approximately 11.2–10.7 ka BP, warming resumed, which was accompanied by a decrease in the climate continentality. Comparison with high-resolution lithological and palynological data from eight reliably dated sections of the central East European Plain indicates that in northwestern and central Europe, the impact of the Preboreal Oscillation cooling on the vegetation and the lake ecosystems' development was probably somewhat stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unambiguous retrieval of cloud phase from polarimetric lidar observations is dependent on the assumption that only cloud scattering processes affect polarization measurements. A systematic bias of the traditional lidar depolarization ratio can occur due to a lidar system's inability to accurately measure the entire backscattered signal dynamic range, and these biases are not always identifiable in traditional polarimetric lidar systems. This results in a misidentification of liquid water in clouds as ice, which has broad implications on evaluating surface energy budgets. The Clouds Aerosol Polarization and Backscatter Lidar at Summit, Greenland employs multiple planes of linear polarization, and photon counting and analog detection schemes, to self evaluate, correct, and optimize signal combinations to improve cloud classification. Using novel measurements of diattenuation that are sensitive to both horizontally oriented ice crystals and counting system nonlinear effects, unambiguous measurements are possible by over constraining polarization measurements. This overdetermined capability for cloud-phase determination allows for system errors to be identified and quantified in terms of their impact on cloud properties. It is shown that lidar system dynamic range effects can cause errors in cloud-phase fractional occurrence estimates on the order of 30% causing errors in attribution of cloud radiative effects on the order of 10-30 %. This paper presents a method to identify and remove lidar system effects from atmospheric polarization measurements and uses colocated sensors at Summit to evaluate this method. Enhanced measurements are achieved in this work with non-orthogonal polarization retrievals as well as analog and photon counting detection facilitating a more complete attribution of radiative effects linked to cloud properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme climate events are hotspots in global change. However, research on the changes in future compound events and population exposure is still limited. Leveraging from the data of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), this paper aims to analyze the temporal and spatial changes of global compound temperature and precipitation extreme events in the future. We also predict the risk of population exposure and quantify the contribution of different factors to exposure. The results show that: (1) In the next 80 years, compound hot-dry event (CHDE) will increase at a rate of 0.02, 0.03, and 0.08 days per decade under the three scenarios of SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5, respectively. By comparison, compound hot-humidity event (CHHE) shows a downward trend under the three scenarios, with a downward rate of 0.01, 0.02, and 0.11 days per decade, respectively. (2) Under the SSP1–2.6 and SSP2–4.5 scenarios, CHDE and CHHE have two or more mutation points. Under the SSP5–8.5 scenario, CHDE shows a significant upward and CHHE shows a significant downward trend in the middle and late 21st century. These two indices exhibit periodic changes in all three scenarios (3) South Asia, West Asia, and Northeast Africa have higher CHDE values, while regions with higher CHHE values are located in North Asia and Greenland. (4) Climate change is a major factor affecting population exposure. For CHDE, climate, population, and their synergistic effects contribute about 75%, 20%, and 5% to the exposure, respectively. For CHHE, the contributions of these three factors are 85%, 10%, and 5% respectively. These findings provide scientific guidance for the rational formulation of population policies, the effective avoidance of climate disaster risks and the protection of human health. • Frequency of hot-dry events and hot-humidity events will increase and decrease, respectively, in the future. • There are abrupt points and periodicity in the future time series of compound temperature and precipitation extremes. • Asia is projected to have the greatest exposure and climate change contributes the most to exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea ice is crucial in regulating the heat balance between the ocean and atmosphere and quintessential for supporting the prevailing Arctic food web. Due to limited and often local data availability back in time, the sensitivity of sea-ice proxies to long-term climate changes is not well constrained, which renders any comparison with palaeoclimate model simulations difficult. Here we compiled a set of marine sea-ice proxy records with a relatively high temporal resolution of at least 100 years, covering the Common Era (past 2k years) in the Greenland–North Atlantic sector of the Arctic to explore the presence of coherent long-term trends and common low-frequency variability, and we compared those data with transient climate model simulations. We used cluster analysis and empirical orthogonal functions to extract leading modes of sea-ice variability, which efficiently filtered out local variations and improved comparison between proxy records and model simulations. We find that a compilation of multiple proxy-based sea-ice reconstructions accurately reflects general long-term changes in sea-ice history, consistent with simulations from two transient climate models. Although sea-ice proxies have varying mechanistic relationships to sea-ice cover, typically differing in habitat or seasonal representation, the long-term trend recorded by proxy-based reconstructions showed a good agreement with summer minimum sea-ice area from the model simulations. The short-term variability was not as coherent between proxy-based reconstructions and model simulations. The leading mode of simulated sea ice associated with the multidecadal to centennial timescale presented a relatively low explained variance and might be explained by changes in solar radiation and/or inflow of warm Atlantic waters to the Arctic Ocean. Short variations in proxy-based reconstructions, however, are mainly associated with local factors and the ecological nature of the proxies. Therefore, a regional or large-scale view of sea-ice trends necessitates multiple spatially spread sea-ice proxy-based reconstructions, avoiding confusion between long-term regional trends and short-term local variability. Local-scale sea-ice studies, in turn, benefit from reconstructions from well-understood individual research sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given growing concerns about climate tipping points and their risks, it is important to investigate the capability of identifying robust precursor signals for the associated transitions. In general, the variance and short-lag autocorrelations of the fluctuations increase in a stochastically forced system approaching a critical or bifurcation-induced transition, making them theoretically suitable indicators to warn of such transitions. Paleoclimate records provide useful test beds if such a warning of a forthcoming transition could work in practice. The Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events are characterized by millennial-scale abrupt climate changes during the glacial period, manifesting most clearly as abrupt temperature shifts in the North Atlantic region. Some previous studies have found such statistical precursor signals for the DO warming transitions. On the other hand, statistical precursor signals for the abrupt DO cooling transitions have not been identified. Analyzing Greenland ice core records, we find robust and statistically significant precursor signals of DO cooling transitions in most of the interstadials longer than roughly 1500 years but not in the shorter interstadials. The origin of the statistical precursor signals is mainly related to so-called rebound events, humps in the temperature observed at the end of interstadial, some decades to centuries prior to the actual transition. We discuss several dynamical mechanisms that give rise to such rebound events and statistical precursor signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scientific and societal questions that draw on ice sheet modeling necessitate sampling a wide range of potential climatic changes and realizations of internal climate variability. For example, coastal planning literature demonstrates a demand for probabilistic sea level projections with quantified uncertainty. Further, robust attribution of past and future ice sheet change to specific processes or forcings requires a full understanding of the space of possible ice sheet behaviors. The wide sampling required to address such questions is computationally infeasible with sophisticated numerical climate models at the resolution required to accurately force ice sheet models. Stochastic generation of climate forcing of ice sheets offers a complementary alternative. Here, we describe a method to construct a stochastic generator for ice sheet surface mass balance varying in time and space. We demonstrate the method with an application to Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance for 1980–2012. We account for spatial correlations among glacier catchments using sparse covariance techniques, and we apply an elevation-dependent downscaling to recover gridded surface mass balance fields suitable for forcing an ice sheet model while including feedback from changing ice sheet surface elevation. The efficiency gained in the stochastic method supports large-ensemble simulations of ice sheet change in a new stochastic ice sheet model. We provide open source Python workflows to support use of our stochastic approach for a broad range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How often have past climates undergone abrupt transitions? While our understanding of millennial variability during the past 130,000 years is well established, with precise dates available, such information on previous climate cycles is limited. To address this question, we identified 196 abrupt transitions in the δ18O record of the well-dated Chinese composite speleothem for the last 640,000 years. These results correspond to abrupt changes in the strength of the East Asian Monsoon, which align with the Greenland stadials and interstadials observed in the North Atlantic region during the last 130,000 years before present. These precise dates of past abrupt climate changes constitute a reliable and necessary benchmark for Earth System models used to study future climate scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic has rapidly transformed from a 'frozen desert' into a theater for high-level politics. Climate change and socioeconomic interdependencies bring the World more and more to the Arctic and vice versa. Increased geological knowledge, new technologies, and high-energy prices make it possible to develop oil and gas resources in the Arctic; however, the effectiveness of oil spill response techniques remains a key concern. To understand oil and gas exploration in the Arctic governance setting, and especially the authority of Greenland, we combine a multi-level governance framework with the concept sphere of authority from post-international theory. The Arctic sphere of authority on oil and gas consists of many different governance arrangements, of which the most well-known governance arrangement is the Arctic Council. This paper focuses on the authority of Greenland in the changing oil and gas governance arrangements in the Arctic. Crucial is the changing Danish-Greenlandic relationship, in which the development of a Greenlandic oil and gas sector is seen as a tool to become financially independent. It can be concluded that the capacity of the Greenlandic government and civil society actors should be the primary guideline for the pace in which oil and gas activities are being developed. Taking this approach will ensure that the Greenland is retaining its central position and high degree of influence on the governance of oil and gas development in its country. Otherwise, it will lose influence and benefits will flow elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a number of aircraft- and boat-based surveys for seabird breeding colonies in East and North Greenland carried out in the period 2003 to 2018 and gives the first comprehensive overview of the distribution and size of the seabird breeding colonies in this remote and mainly uninhabited region. Seventeen seabird species breed in approximately 800 sites distributed very unevenly along the coasts, with high concentrations at the polynyas and long stretches with very few breeding seabirds. Climate changes are in full progress in East and North Greenland, especially affecting the sea ice regime, and seabirds are expected to respond to these changes in different ways. For example, since the 1980s, Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) have extended their breeding range more than two latitudinal degrees towards the north, now reaching the northernmost land on Earth. Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) and Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) have immigrated, and Sabine's Gulls (Xema sabini) have increased and extended their range. Besides presenting survey results, this report may also serve as a baseline for future studies of the abundance of breeding seabirds in East and North Greenland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice core records from Greenland provide evidence for multiple abrupt cold–warm– cold events recurring at millennial time scales during the last glacial interval. Although climate variations resembling Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) oscillations have been identified in climate archives across the globe, our understanding of the climate and ecosystem impacts of the Greenland warming events in lower latitudes remains incomplete. Here, we investigate the influence of DO-cold-to-warm transitions on the global atmospheric circulation pattern. We comprehensively analyze δ18O changes during DO transitions in a globally distributed dataset of speleothems and set those in context with simulations of a comprehensive high-resolution climate model featuring internal millennial-scale variations of similar magnitude. Across the globe, speleothem δ18O signals and model results indicate consistent large-scale changes in precipitation amount, moisture source, or seasonality of precipitation associated with the DO transitions, in agreement with northward shifts of the Hadley circulation. Furthermore, we identify a decreasing trend in the amplitude of DO transitions with increasing distances from the North Atlantic region. This provides quantitative observational evidence for previous suggestions of the North Atlantic region being the focal point for these archetypes of past abrupt climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper that determined the rate of Arctic juniper primary growth in southwest Greenland. Topics discussed include studies of tundra shrubs having become vital parts of Arctic activities, their applications varying from fields including population ecology to carbon storage and permafrost thaw.

Based on reanalysis datasets and sea‐ice sensitivity experiments, this study has pointed out that the autumn sea ice loss in East Siberian‐Chukchi‐Beaufort (EsCB) Seas significantly increases the frequency of winter extreme low temperature over western‐central China. Autumn sea ice loss warms the troposphere and generates anticyclonic anomaly over the Arctic region 1 month later. Under the effects of synoptic eddy‐mean flow interaction and anomalous upward propagated planetary wave 2, the Arctic anticyclonic anomaly strengthens and develops toward Greenland‐Northern Europe, accompanied by a weakened stratospheric polar vortex. In winter, following intra‐seasonal downward propagation of stratospheric anomalies, the Northern European positive geopotential height anomalies enhance and expand downstream within 7 days, favoring Arctic cold air east of Novaya Zemlya southward (the hyperpolar path) accumulating in Siberia around Lake Baikal. In the subsequent 2–3 days, these cold anomalies rapidly intrude western‐central China and induce abrupt sharp cooling, thus more frequent extreme low temperature there. In contrast, the role of autumn Barents‐Kara (BK) sea ice loss exhibits quite different features, mainly favoring northwestern, northeastern and eastern China to experience increased frequency of extreme low temperature in winter. Plain Language Summary: Arctic sea ice change not only regulates the local ecosystem but extends its influences into mid‐even low‐latitudes through several complicated physical processes. Sea ice variation in EsCB Seas exhibits an increased amplitude and more crucial role in climate change under global warming. The new findings hinted that autumn EsCB sea ice decrease would significantly promote western‐central China to experience more frequent winter extreme low temperature. In responses, an Arctic anticyclonic anomaly occurs 1 month later and develops toward Greenland‐Northern Europe due to synoptic eddy‐mean flow interaction. Enhanced upward propagated planetary wave 2 and associated wave‐mean flow interaction maintains the tropospheric Arctic anomalies and weakens the stratospheric polar vortex. When entering winter, following intra‐seasonal downward propagated stratospheric anomalies, the Northern European anticyclonic anomaly strengthens downstream within 7 days, favoring Arctic cold air east of Novaya Zemlya rapidly invading western‐central China (the hyperpolar path) and sudden sharp cooling. Our results have understood how autumn EsCB sea ice loss contributes to extreme low temperature in China, including possible physical mechanisms and cold air pathways, unlike previous work focusing on BK Seas and winter‐mean temperature change. It provides a new factor and theoretical foundations for predicting winter extreme low temperature. Key Points: Autumn East Siberian‐Chukchi‐Beaufort sea ice loss favors cold air east of Novaya Zemlya invading western‐central China, thus more frequent extreme low temperatureSynoptic eddy‐mean flow interaction and anomalous upward planetary wave 2 provide favorable anticyclonic anomaly for extreme events outburstIntra‐seasonal downward propagated stratospheric anomalies are vital for the Ural anticyclonic anomaly to develop downstream within 7 days [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been melting at an accelerating rate over recent decades. Meltwater from Greenland might be expected to initiate a climate response that is distinct, and perhaps different from, that associated with Antarctic meltwater. Which one might elicit a greater climate response, and what mechanisms are involved? To explore these questions, we apply climate response functions (CRFs) to guide a series of meltwater-perturbation experiments using a fully coupled climate model. In both hemispheres, meltwater drives atmospheric cooling, sea ice expansion, and strengthened Hadley and Ferrel cells. Greenland meltwater induces a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and a cooling of the subsurface ocean in the northern high latitudes. Antarctic meltwater, instead, induces a slowdown of the Antarctic Bottom Water formation and a warming of the subsurface ocean around Antarctica. For melt rates up to 2000 Gt yr−1, the climate response is rather linear. However, as melt rates increase to 5000 Gt yr−1, the climate response becomes nonlinear. Due to a collapsed AMOC, the climate response is superlinear at high Greenland melt rates. Instead, the climate response is sublinear at high Antarctic melt rates, due to the halting of the northward expansion of Antarctic sea ice by warm surface waters. Finally, in the linear limit, we use CRFs and linear convolution theory to make projections of important climate parameters in response to meltwater scenarios, which suggest that Antarctic meltwater will become a major driver of climate change, dominating that of Greenland meltwater, as the current century proceeds. Significance Statement: Melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is one of the most uncertain potential contributors to future climate change. In this study, we address the comparative role of Greenland and Antarctic meltwater in the climate system and explore the differing mechanisms at work in each hemisphere. We find that the climate response is linear for low melt rates but becomes nonlinear for high melt rates. As the century proceeds, we speculate that Antarctic meltwater will increasingly dominate that of Greenland meltwater, leading to atmospheric cooling, Antarctic sea ice expansion, and contraction and warming of the Antarctic Bottom Water. Greenland meltwater will, instead, affect smaller changes in the Northern Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries are an important resource in many countries, across oceans and along coasts, and, even though it is usually neglected, they bring not only economic value with them but also social value, supporting an important web of cultural practices. Thus, any perturbation on the fish resources may cause a domino effect on both ecosystem and human populations. In this paper we focus on a marine mammal which is entering the Arctic in increasing numbers, the killer whales ( Orcinus orca ), a major predator that may not only reshape the rapidly changing marine ecosystems via top-down forcing but also affect fisheries and cultural costumes through a specific, socially transmitted behavioural factor: depredation. By assessing the current knowledge of the depredation issue at a global scale as well as the studies of killer whales in the North Atlantic and Arctic waters, we discuss whether an eventual emerging depredation on halibut fisheries in Greenlandic waters should be taken into consideration. We stress a more flexible and cutting edge management regime on the forefront of environmental change and future scenarios. We accentuate an increased recognition of wildlife management also including an understanding of people and that success will be determined largely by political, social and cultural factors. Finally, we conclude that Greenland, being on the cutting edge of change, has high potentiality for building research based on a co-production of knowledge of both natural science and traditional knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising temperatures and an acceleration of the hydrological cycle due to climate change are increasing river discharge, causing permafrost thaw, glacial melt, and a shift to a groundwater‐dominated system in the Arctic. These changes are funneled to coastal regions of the Arctic Ocean where the implications for the distributions of nutrients and biogeochemical constituents are unclear. In this study, we investigate the impact of terrestrial runoff on marine biogeochemistry in Inuit Nunangat (the Canadian Arctic Archipelago)—a key pathway for transport and modification of waters from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic—using sensitivity experiments from 2002 to 2020 with an ocean model of manganese (Mn). The micronutrient Mn traces terrestrial runoff and the modification of geochemical constituents of runoff during transit. The heterogeneity in Arctic runoff composition creates distinct terrestrial fingerprints of influence in the ocean: continental runoff influences Mn in the southwestern Archipelago, glacial runoff dominates the northeast, and their influence co‐occurs in central Parry Channel. Glacial runoff carries micronutrients southward from Nares Strait in the late summer and may help support longer phytoplankton blooms in the Pikialasorsuaq polynya. Enhanced glacial runoff may increase micronutrients delivered downstream to Baffin Bay, accounting for up to 18% of dissolved Mn fluxes seasonally and 6% annually. These findings highlight how climate induced changes to terrestrial runoff may impact the geochemical composition of the marine environment, and will help to predict the extent of these impacts from ongoing alterations of the Arctic hydrological cycle. Plain Language Summary: In the Arctic, climate change is expected to increase river flow and alter the composition of river water through permafrost thaw and glacial melt. Many rivers and land areas drain to the coastal Arctic Ocean; the impact of changes to the nutrients carried by river water to these regions are unclear. In this study, we focus on Inuit Nunangat (the Canadian Arctic Archipelago)—a series of shallow channels that connects the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic—and look at where in the ocean the material in the river water ends up and how much of the material travels downstream. We use experiments with an ocean model from 2002 to 2020 and track an element found in river water: manganese (Mn), which is also an important nutrient in the ocean. While continental rivers mainly influence Mn in the southwestern Archipelago, glaciers influence the northeastern Archipelago and supply nutrients to Pikialasorsuaq, one of the Arctic's most biologically active areas. Glaciers can contribute up to 18% to Mn transported downstream of Nares Strait seasonally and 6% yearly. Our findings highlight how climate related changes in the composition of river water impact the marine system of Inuit Nunangat and how these changes can funnel downstream. Key Points: The heterogeneity in Arctic drainage basins creates a north‐south separation in Mn contributions to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago oceanGlacial runoff from Nares Strait supplies micronutrients such as Mn to the Pikialasorsuaq or North Water polynyaChanges in glacial runoff composition in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and northwestern Greenland are conveyed downstream into Baffin Bay [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regions located on the Chinese Loess Plateau are sensitive to changes in the Asian monsoon because they are on the edge of the monsoon region. Based on six 230Th experiments and 109 sets of stable isotope data of LH36 from Lianhua Cave, Yangquan City, Shanxi Province, we obtained a paleoclimate record with an average resolution of 120 years from 54.5 to 41.1 ka BP during the MIS3 on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Both the Hendy test and the replication test indicated an equilibrium fractionation of stable isotopes during the stalagmite deposition. Comparison with four other independently-dated, high-resolution stalagmite δ13C records between 29°N and 41°N in the Asian monsoon region shows that the stalagmite δ13C records from different caves have good reproducibility during the overlapped growth period. We suggest that speleothem δ13C effectively indicates soil CO2 production in the overlying area of the cave, reflecting changes in the cave's external environment and in the Asian summer monsoon. Five millennial-scale Asian summer monsoon intensification events correspond to the Dansgaard–Oeschger 10–14 cycles recorded in the Greenland ice core within dating errors, and the weak monsoon processes are closely related to stadials in the North Atlantic. The spatial consistency of stalagmite δ13C records in China suggests that the Asian summer monsoon and the related regional ecological environment fluctuations sensitively respond to climate changes at northern high latitudes through sea-air coupling on the millennial timescale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing long-term microbiome-based monitoring programs is critical for managing and conserving wild fish populations in response to climate change. In most cases, these studies have been conducted on gut and, to a lesser extent, skin (mucus) microbiomes. Here, we exploited the concept of liquid biopsy to study the circulating bacterial microbiome of two Northern halibut species of economic and ecological importance. Amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene were achieved using a single drop of blood fixed on FTA cards to identify the core blood microbiome of Atlantic and Greenland halibut populations inhabiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. We provide evidence that the circulating microbiome DNA (cmDNA) is driven by genetic and environmental factors. More specifically, we found that the circulating microbiome signatures are species-specific and vary according to sex, size, temperature, condition factor, and geographical localization. Overall, our study provides a novel approach for detecting dysbiosis signatures and the risk of disease in wild fish populations for fisheries management, most notably in the context of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the future fate of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) in the context of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is crucial to predict sea level rise. With the fully coupled Earth system model of intermediate complexity CLIMBER‐X, we study the stability of the GIS and its transient response to CO2 emissions over the next 10 Kyr. Bifurcation points exist at global temperature anomalies of 0.6 and 1.6 K relative to pre‐industrial. For system states in the vicinity of the equilibrium ice volumes corresponding to these temperature anomalies, mass loss rate and sensitivity of mass loss to cumulative CO2 emission peak. These critical ice volumes are crossed for cumulative emissions of 1,000 and 2,500 GtC, which would cause long‐term sea level rise by 1.8 and 6.9 m respectively. In summary, we find tipping of the GIS within the range of the temperature limits of the Paris agreement. Plain Language Summary: With ongoing carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the atmosphere heats up, which has dramatic consequences for the ice sheets on Earth. In this study, we focus on the Greenland ice sheet (GIS), which holds so much ice that a complete melting would cause the global sea level to rise by 7 m. However, future mass loss of the GIS is challenging to predict because it is a non‐linear function of temperature and occurs over long timescales. For this reason, we use CLIMBER‐X, which is a coupled model of the whole Earth system. We find that the GIS features two critical volume thresholds, whose crossing would imply extensive further mass loss so that it would be difficult for the ice to grow back, even in thousands of years. Near these critical ice volumes, the mass loss rates are particularly high, and differences in the total carbon dioxide emission have a large impact. In summary, if cumulative emissions larger than 1,000 Gt carbon are released into the atmosphere, the GIS will shrink below a critical threshold and mass loss will inevitably continue until a substantial part of the ice sheet has melted. Key Points: Bifurcation points exist at global mean temperature anomalies of 0.6 and 1.6 K relative to pre‐industrialMass loss rate and sensitivity to cumulative CO2 emission peak near the equilibrium ice volumes belonging to these temperature anomaliesSubstantial long‐term mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet for cumulative emissions larger than 1,000 Gt carbon [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate during the last glacial period was marked by abrupt instability on millennial timescales that included large swings of temperature in and around Greenland (Daansgard–Oeschger events) and smaller, more gradual changes in Antarctica (AIM events). Less is known about the existence and nature of similar variability during older glacial periods, especially during the early Pleistocene when glacial cycles were dominantly occurring at 41 kyr intervals compared to the much longer and deeper glaciations of the more recent period. Here, we report a continuous millennially resolved record of stable isotopes of planktic and benthic foraminifera at IODP Site U1385 (the "Shackleton Site") from the southwestern Iberian margin for the last 1.5 million years, which includes the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT). Our results demonstrate that millennial climate variability (MCV) was a persistent feature of glacial climate, both before and after the MPT. Prior to 1.2 Ma in the early Pleistocene, the amplitude of MCV was modulated by the 41 kyr obliquity cycle and increased when axial tilt dropped below 23.5 ∘ and benthic δ18O exceeded ∼3.8 ‰ (corrected to Uvigerina), indicating a threshold response to orbital forcing. Afterwards, MCV became focused mainly on the transitions into and out of glacial states (i.e. inceptions and terminations) and during times of intermediate ice volume. After 1.2 Ma, obliquity continued to play a role in modulating the amplitude of MCV, especially during times of glacial inceptions, which are always associated with declining obliquity. A non-linear role for obliquity is also indicated by the appearance of multiples (82, 123 kyr) and combination tones (28 kyr) of the 41 kyr cycle. Near the end of the MPT (∼0.65 Ma), obliquity modulation of MCV amplitude wanes as quasi-periodic 100 kyr and precession power increase, coinciding with the growth of oversized ice sheets on North America and the appearance of Heinrich layers in North Atlantic sediments. Whereas the planktic δ18O of Site U1385 shows a strong resemblance to Greenland temperature and atmospheric methane (i.e. Northern Hemisphere climate), millennial changes in benthic δ18O closely follow the temperature history of Antarctica for the past 800 kyr. The phasing of millennial planktic and benthic δ18O variation is similar to that observed for MIS 3 throughout much of the record, which has been suggested to mimic the signature of the bipolar seesaw – i.e. an interhemispheric asymmetry between the timing of cooling in Antarctica and warming in Greenland. The Iberian margin isotopic record suggests that bipolar asymmetry was a robust feature of interhemispheric glacial climate variations for at least the past 1.5 Ma despite changing glacial boundary conditions. A strong correlation exists between millennial increases in planktic δ18O (cooling) and decreases in benthic δ13C , indicating that millennial variations in North Atlantic surface temperature are mirrored by changes in deep-water circulation and remineralization of carbon in the abyssal ocean. We find strong evidence that climate variability on millennial and orbital scales is coupled across different timescales and interacts in both directions, which may be important for linking internal climate dynamics and external astronomical forcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This synthesis paper summarizes published proxy climate evidence showing the spatial and temporal pattern of climate change through the Holocene in Arctic Canada and Greenland. Our synthesis includes 47 records from a recently published database of highly resolved Holocene paleoclimate time series from the Arctic (Sundqvist et al., 2014). We analyze the temperature histories represented by the database and compare them with paleoclimate and environmental information from 54 additional published records, mostly from datasets that did not fit the selection criteria for the Arctic Holocene database. Combined, we review evidence from a variety of proxy archives including glaciers (ice cores and glacial geomorphology), lake sediments, peat sequences, and coastal and deep-marine sediments. The temperature-sensitive records indicate more consistent and earlier Holocene warmth in the north and east, and a more diffuse and later Holocene thermal maximum in the south and west. Principal components analysis reveals two dominant Holocene trends, one with early Holocene warmth followed by cooling in the middle Holocene, the other with a broader period of warmth in the middle Holocene followed by cooling in the late Holocene. The temperature decrease from the warmest to the coolest portions of the Holocene is 3.0 ± 1.0 °C on average (n = 11 sites). The Greenland Ice Sheet retracted to its minimum extent between 5 and 3 ka, consistent with many sites from around Greenland depicting a switch from warm to cool conditions around that time. The spatial pattern of temperature change through the Holocene was likely driven by the decrease in northern latitude summer insolation through the Holocene, the varied influence of waning ice sheets in the early Holocene, and the variable influx of Atlantic Water into the study region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1912, a Swiss expedition led by meteorologist Alfred de Quervain crossed the Greenland ice sheet on a route from Disko Bay to Tasiilaq. Based on that, in 2002, a series of geodetic expeditions carried out by W. Korth and later by T. Hitziger began along the same traverse as in 1912, with the last measurements taken in May 2021. The statically collected GPS/GNSS data provide very accurate elevation changes at 36 points along the almost 700 km long crossing over a period of 19 years. According to this, there is a maximum increase of 2.1 m in the central area and a decrease of up to 38.7 m towards the coasts (influence Ilulissat Isbræ). By using kinematic GNSS measurements, there is a very dense profile with a spacing of a few meters. The comparison of those measurements is performed using crossing points or minimum distances and gives equivalent results for both methods. It is shown that local ice topography is preserved, and thus gaps in data sets can be caught. Areas of accumulation and ablation on the ice sheet can be identified, showing the widespread influence of outlet glaciers up to 200 km. The data can be used for direct verification of altimetry data, such as IceSat. Both IceSat elevations and their changes can be compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: sea-level rise; climate change; ice sheet; Greenland; Antartica EN sea-level rise climate change ice sheet Greenland Antartica 1 4 4 12/29/22 20221201 NES 221201 The Iselin Marine Facility overlooks Vineyard Sound, Woods Hole Passage, and Great Harbor in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Ice sheet and climate processes driving uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise: Findings from a structured expert judgment approach. Grinsted et al. ([11]) build on previous efforts by considering the most recent generation of climate, ice-sheet, and glacier models, and by quantifying sensitivities of individual contributors to global sea level rise, including the ice sheets. Sea-level rise, climate change, ice sheet, Greenland, Antartica. [Extracted from the article]

While a significant influence of volcanic activity on Holocene climate is well-established, an equally prominent role of major eruptions in the climate variability and regime shifts during the Quaternary glacial cycles has been suggested. Previous statistical assessments of this were challenged by inaccurate synchronization of large volcanic eruptions to changes in past climate. Here, this is alleviated by combining a new record of bipolar volcanism from Greenland and Antarctic ice cores with records of abrupt climate change derived from the same ice cores. We show that bipolar volcanic eruptions occurred significantly more frequently than expected by chance just before the onset of Dansgaard–Oeschger events, which are the most prominent large-scale abrupt climate changes in the last glacial period. Out of 20 abrupt warming events in the 12–60 ka period, 5 (7) occur within 20 (50) years after a bipolar eruption. We hypothesize that this may be a result of the direct influence of volcanic cooling on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which is widely regarded as the main climate subsystem involved in Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. Transitions from a weak to a strong circulation mode may be triggered by cooling in the North Atlantic given that the circulation is close to a stability threshold. We illustrate this suggestion by simulations with an ocean-only general circulation model forced by short-term volcanic cooling. The analysis presented suggests that large eruptions may act as short-term triggers for large-scale abrupt climate change and may explain some of the variability of Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. While we argue that the bipolar catalogue used here covers a sufficiently large portion of the eruptions with the strongest global climate impact, volcanic events restricted to either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere may likewise contribute to abrupt climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea ice decline in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas has been proposed to contribute to the repeated abrupt atmospheric warmings recorded in Greenland ice cores during the last glacial period, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events. However, the understanding of how sea ice changes were coupled with abrupt climate changes during D-O events has remained incomplete due to a lack of suitable high-resolution sea ice proxy records from northwestern North Atlantic regions. Here, we present a subdecadal-scale bromine enrichment (Brenr) record from the NEEM ice core (Northwest Greenland) and sediment core biomarker records to reconstruct the variability of seasonal sea ice in the Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea over a suite of D-O events between 34 and 42 ka. Our results reveal repeated shifts between stable, multiyear sea ice (MYSI) conditions during cold stadials and unstable, seasonal sea ice conditions during warmer interstadials. The shift from stadial to interstadial sea ice conditions occurred rapidly and synchronously with the atmospheric warming over Greenland, while the amplitude of high-frequency sea ice fluctuations increased through interstadials. Our findings suggest that the rapid replacement of widespread MYSI with seasonal sea ice amplified the abrupt climate warming over the course of D-O events and highlight the role of feedbacks associated with late-interstadial seasonal sea ice expansion in driving the North Atlantic ocean-climate system back to stadial conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are multiple extreme events underway in the Arctic that are beyond previous records: rain in Greenland, Alaska weather variability, and ecosystem reorganizations in the Barents and the northern Bering Sea associated with climate change and sea-ice loss. Such unique extreme events represent a philosophical challenge for interpretation, i.e., a lack of statistical basis, as well as important information for regional adaptation to climate change. These changes are affecting regional food security, human/wildlife health, cultural activities, and marine wildlife conservation. Twenty years ago, the Arctic was more resilient to climate change than now, as sea ice had a broader extent and was three times thicker than today. These new states cannot be assigned probabilities because one cannot a priori conceive of these states. They often have no historical analogues. A way forward for adaptation to future extremes is through scenario/narrative approaches; a recent development in climate change policy is through decision making under deep uncertainty (DMDU). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our limited understanding of millennial‐scale variability in the context of the last glacial period can be explained by the lack of a reliable modeling framework to study abrupt climate changes under realistic glacial backgrounds. In this article, we describe a new set of long‐run Last Glacial Maximum experiments where such climate shifts were triggered by different snapshots of ice‐sheet meltwater derived from the early stages of the last deglaciation. Depending on the location and the magnitude of the forcing, we observe three distinct dynamical regimes and highlight a subtle window of opportunity where the climate can sustain oscillations between cold and warm modes. We identify the Eurasian Arctic and Nordic Seas regions as being most sensitive to meltwater discharge in the context of switching to a cold mode, compared to freshwater fluxes from the Laurentide ice sheets. These cold climates follow a consistent pattern in temperature, sea ice, and convection, and are largely independent from freshwater release as a result of effective AMOC collapse. Warm modes, on the other hand, show more complexity in their response to the regional pattern of the meltwater input, and within them, we observe significant differences linked to the reorganization of deep water formation sites and the subpolar gyre. Broadly, the main characteristics of the oscillations, obtained under full‐glacial conditions with ice‐sheet reconstruction derived meltwater patterns, share similar characteristics with δ18O records of the last glacial period, although our experiment design prevents detailed conclusions from being drawn on whether these represent actual Dansgaard‐Oeschger events. Plain Language Summary: During the last glacial period (115,000–12,000 years before present), the baseline cold climate was continuously disturbed by intense and abrupt climate changes. They completely modified the climate for a few thousand years or so, resulting, for instance, in massive temperature shifts and complete reorganizations of ocean circulation. These abrupt changes have been observed in climate records from the Northern Hemisphere and also can be traced in records from the Southern Hemisphere. Yet, we still do not know what triggers these changes, and often cannot simulate them at the right time under known environmental conditions. In the context of the Last Glacial Maximum, a cold period 21,000 years ago with extensive ice over the Northern Hemisphere, this article analyses a new set of climate model simulations that test the effects of freshwater melting from the ice sheets at different periods of the early deglaciation (∼21,000 to 18,000 years before present). Under some conditions, the resulting experiments displayed an Atlantic Ocean that oscillates between strong and collapsed basin‐wide circulation, causing approximately 10°C of temperature change over Greenland; a behavior that resembles observed abrupt climate changes. Key Points: New set of long‐run Last Glacial Maximum general circulation model experiments showing millennial‐scale variabilityDetailed description of the impact of ice sheet reconstruction‐derived meltwater distributions on abrupt climate changesIntroduction for future studies of the underlying physical processes of abrupt climate changes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites can estimate the high-precision time-varying gravity field and the changes of Earth's surface mass, which have been widely used in water cycle and glacier mass balance. However, one of larger errors in GRACE measurements, land–ocean leakage effects, restricts high precision retrieval of ocean mass and terrestrial water storage variations along the coasts, particularly estimation of mass loss in Greenland. The land–ocean leakage effect along the coasts in Greenland will contaminate the mass loss signals with significant signal attenuation. In this paper, the precise glacier mass loss in Greenland from GRACE is re-estimated with correction of land–ocean leakage effects using the forward gravity modeling. The loss of Greenland ice-sheets is − 102.8 ± 9.01 Gt/a without removing leakage effect, but − 183.0 ± 19.91 Gt/a after removing the leakage effect from September 2003 to March 2008, which has a good agreement with ICESat results of − 184.8 ± 28.2 Gt/a. From January 2003 to December 2013, the total Greenland ice-sheet loss is at − 261.54 ± 6.12 Gt/a from GRACE measurements with removing the leakage effect by 42.4%, while two-thirds of total glacier melting in Greenland occurred in southern Greenland in the past 11 years. The secular leakage effects on glacier melting estimate is mainly located in the coastal areas, where larger glacier signals are significantly attenuated due to leaking out into the ocean. Furthermore, the leakage signals also have remarkable effects on seasonal and acceleration variations of glacier mass loss in Greenland. More significantly accelerated loss of glacier mass in Greenland is found at − 26.19 Gt/a 2 after correcting for leakage effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As arctic permafrost continues to thaw, previously inaccessible nitrogen (N) becomes available to N‐limited arctic plants. Increased N availability could enhance plant growth and thereby potentially offset climate‐induced carbon release. Arctic plants can take up newly available permafrost‐N locally upon release. However, in a topographically diverse arctic landscape, permafrost‐N may be transported along hillslopes, away from the point‐of‐release. The extent to which topographical N transport can impact arctic vegetation change depends on whether N is retained locally, captured by downslope recipient plant communities, or transported away.We used stable isotope labelling (15N) to simulate upslope release of ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−) from thawing permafrost on an arctic hillslope, western Greenland. We tracked the plant species‐specific uptake of simulated permafrost‐released N from the upslope point‐of‐release to the bottom of the slope through 4 years.We found that arctic tundra plants successfully acquired locally released permafrost‐N, even in sloping terrain, and that N was strongly retained in the plant–soil system through multiple years. At the same time, we also importantly demonstrate that permafrost‐N can be transported and taken up by plants up to 30 m downslope from the point‐of‐release. Especially NO3− was more easily redistributed vertically within the soil column compared to NH4+ and therefore potentially more accessible to plants. Specifically, plant species with fast N uptake capacity and deep‐soil foraging strategies may have competitive advantages for capitalising on deep‐soil released and topographically transported permafrost‐N (here exemplified by Equisetum arvense and Salix glauca). Nevertheless, even mosses gained access to permafrost‐N via vertical and lateral redistribution on the slope. Ultimately, the intricate balance between strong local N retention, downslope transport and plant species‐specific uptake strategies may contribute to shaping arctic vegetation change.Synthesis. Across spatially complex arctic ecosystems, arctic plants can take up permafrost‐released N both at the local point‐of‐release and at a considerable distance downslope. The potential for arctic plants to take advantage of topographically transported permafrost‐N could lead to long‐term and landscape‐scale changes in species composition, plant productivity, and ultimately carbon and climate feedbacks across the Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic streams are highly sensitive to climate warming due to changes in water temperature and nutrient availability. Mosses are the dominant benthic primary producers in low-order streams in Greenland, and climate induced ecosystem alterations are expected to cause significant changes to their growth and productivity rates. However, the combined effects of climate change to stream mosses are relatively unknown. In this study, we conducted a full factorial experiment with three levels of nutrients and temperatures, and we measured primary productivity by applying the 14C-CO2 tracer method, relative growth rate (RGR), shoot elongation (SE) and lateral growth (length of branches, LB; Shoot density, SD). We aimed to investigate the single and interactive effect of temperature and nutrient enrichment on growth (biomass and elongation), primary productivity and shoot morphology of the Arctic aquatic moss Hygrohypnella ochracea. We found that low temperature determines H. ochracea growth however, the effect of nutrient enrichment became increasingly significant with increasing temperature. We also found important morphological changes in moss lateral growth which is expected to cause fundamental changes in moss community structure. Our results demonstrated that, in the low-order Arctic streams, climate change will cause shifts in benthic primary productivity, growth and morphology, and these changes are expected to cause cascading effects on the stream ecosystem structure, biodiversity and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a two-dimensional blocking index, the cause and effect relationship between European blocking (EB) events and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) events is investigated. It is shown that the EB event frequency is enhanced over Northern (Southern) Europe for negative (positive) phases of the NAO. Enhanced EB events over Northern Europe precede the establishment of negative phase NAO (NAO) events, while the enhanced frequency of EB events over Southern Europe lags positive phase NAO (NAO) events. The physical explanation for why enhanced EB events over Northern (Southern) Europe lead (lag) NAO (NAO) events is also provided. It is found that the lead-lag relationship between EB events in different regions and the phase of NAO events can be explained in terms of the different latitudinal distribution of zonal wind associated with the different phases of NAO events. For NAO events, the self-maintained eastward displacement of intensified midlatitude positive height anomalies owing to the intensified zonal wind can enhance the frequency of EB events over Southern Europe, thus supporting a standpoint that EB events over Southern Europe lag NAO events. Over Northern Europe, EB events lead NAO events because NAO- events arise from the self-maintained westward migration of intensified blocking anticyclones due to the weakened zonal wind in higher latitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subglacial hydrologic systems regulate ice sheet flow, causing acceleration or deceleration, depending on hydraulic efficiency and the rate at which surface meltwater is delivered to the bed. Because these systems are rarely observed, ice sheet basal drainage represents a poorly integrated and uncertain component of models used to predict sea level changes. Here, we report radarderived basal melt rates and unexpectedly warm subglacial conditions beneath a large Greenlandic outlet glacier. The basal melt rates averaged 14 mm · d−1 over 4 months, peaking at 57 mm · d−1 when basal water temperature reached +0.88 ◦C in a nearby borehole. We attribute both observations to the conversion of potential energy of surface water to heat in the basal drainage system, which peaked during a period of rainfall and intense surface melting. Our findings reveal limitations in the theory of channel formation, and we show that viscous dissipation far surpasses other basal heat sources, even in a distributed, highpressure system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on newly-available meteorological reanalysis, we compile and present extended seasonal series of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Greenland Blocking indices spanning 1800–2020, which we analyse for evidence of significant trends. This represents a major backward extension of the previously available instrumental-/reanalysis-based Azores–Iceland and principal component-based NAO indices, and allows us to evaluate the potential effect of natural climate perturbations, especially the 1809 and 1815 major volcanic eruptions and ~1790s–1830 Dalton solar minimum, on North Atlantic atmospheric circulation. We find that winters 1809/10 and 1816/17 mark positive NAO peaks, relative to several years before and afterwards, which is in accordance with the theory of volcanic forcing of climate. However, there is little evidence of a summer NAO volcanic signature. Overall, based on the significantly longer new reanalysis time series, the new series presented here corroborate and extend our previous results of: (1) a significantly more variable year-to-year NAO with a recent exceptional clustering of extreme events since 2000 for winter; (2) a significant increasing trend in blocking over Greenland in summer. These trends have major repercussions for the probability of the occurrence of extreme weather events over northwest Europe and for the sensitivity and response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to global warming, especially if they continue as an integral part of anthropogenic climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleo-proxy records suggest that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) exhibits a threshold for an abrupt change, a so-called tipping point. A classical bifurcation theory, a basis of the tipping dynamics of AMOC implicitly assumes that the tipping point is fixed. However, when a system is subjected to time-varying forcing (e.g., AMOC exposed to ice meltwater) an actual tipping point can be overshot due to delayed tipping, referred to as the slow passage effect. Here, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity and a low-order model with freshwater forcing, we show that the tipping point of AMOC is largely delayed by the slow passage effect. It causes a large tipping lag of up to 1300 years, and strongly relaxes the abruptness of tipping as well. We further demonstrate that the tipping modulation can actively occur in past, present, and future climates by quantifying the effect during Dansgaard-Oeschger events, meltwater pulse 1A (MWP-1A), and current Greenland ice sheet melting. The suggested slow passage effect may explain the observed lagged AMOC collapse to MWP-1A of about 1000 years and provides implications tipping risk in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean moderates the world's climate through absorption of heat and carbon, but how much carbon the ocean will continue to absorb remains unknown. The North Atlantic Ocean west (Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea) and east (Fram Strait/Greenland Sea) of Greenland features the most intense absorption of anthropogenic carbon globally; the biological carbon pump (BCP) contributes substantially. As Arctic sea-ice melts, the BCP changes, impacting global climate and other critical ocean attributes (e.g. biodiversity). Full understanding requires year-round observations across a range of ice conditions. Here we present such observations: autonomously collected Eulerian continuous 24-month time-series in Fram Strait. We show that, compared to ice-unaffected conditions, sea-ice derived meltwater stratification slows the BCP by 4 months, a shift from an export to a retention system, with measurable impacts on benthic communities. This has implications for ecosystem dynamics in the future warmer Arctic where the seasonal ice zone is expected to expand. The North Atlantic biological pump has the most intense absorption of C globally, but how this will fare in light of climate changes (especially sea-ice melting) is poorly understood. Here the authors present a 24-month continuous time series of physical, chemical, and biological observations in the Fram Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global sea level reconstruction (RecSL) for 1900–2015 was used to estimate the variations in oceanic kinetic energy (OKE) and compare OKE with changes in wind patterns and wind kinetic energy (WKE); the comparison was done for each latitude and for 5 western boundary currents (WBCs). Two contributors to variability in sea level were analyzed: gravitational, rotational and deformational effects (GRD) related to changes in water masses (barystatic sea level change), and changes in the sterodynamic sea level (SDSL), associated with changes in wind, steric sea level and ocean circulation. GRD changes were responsible for latitudinal multidecadal variations with time scale of ~ 60 to 80 years, while SDSL changes were responsible for interannual and decadal variability, and together with the Greenland ice melt, to sea level acceleration since the 1960s. Regional changes near WBCs show a coherent upward trend in OKE (+ 24% ± 3 increase per century), while trends in WKE over the same regions changed widely from -11% (decrease) over the Gulf Stream region to + 28% (increase) over the Brazil Current region. Low frequency oscillations of wind and oceanic kinetic energy are correlated in some WBCs (e.g., R = 0.5 in the Kuroshio region) but not in others (e.g., R = -0.05 in the Gulf Stream region). The study suggests that several forcing mechanisms contribute to the increased OKE, they include an increased wind-stress curl over subtropical gyres, local changes in wind patterns that impact some WBCs, and large uneven warming near WBCs that increased sea level gradients and thus intensified OKE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]