Project Details
Projekt
Evaluating the AMOC strength for a full glacial cycle.
Applicant
Dr. Jörg Lippold
Subject Area
Geology
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507158203
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) represents a major player in the climate system of our planet by modulating the global transport and storage of salt, heat, nutrients and carbon. In order to provide realistic predictions about the response of Earth’s climate to perturbations, we need a mechanistic understanding of ocean circulation. During the Holocene, deep water formation has been active in the North Atlantic and this North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) has occupied a large fraction of the deep Atlantic basin. This circulation mode is often referred to as the ‘Warm’ mode. For the last glacial the perception of three AMOC-modes gained wide acceptance after the benchmark study by McManus et al. (2004) and by Böhm et al. (2015) from the Bermuda Rise. However, there has been always serious voices claiming that the deep Bermuda Rise alone is not sufficiently representative for the whole Atlantic Ocean and its circulation. As a logical consequence, in this project we will reconstruct the variability of the AMOC during the last glacial cycle based on down-core records from locations up- and down-stream the flow-path of NADW relative to the Bermuda Rise. By making use of radiogenic isotope proxies, such as Neodymium isotopes and the uranium decay products 231Pa and 230Th, water mass distribution and circulation strength in the North Atlantic will be assessed. The result from this project, independent from potentially biasing effects present at the Bermuda Rise, will represent highly demanded past oceanic parameters for climate models.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
Co-Investigators
Dr. Marcus Gutjahr; Privatdozent Dr. Marcel Regelous
