Sea ice in the paleoclimate system: the challenge of reconstructing sea ice from proxies – an introduction

Sea ice is an important component of the Earth system with complex dynamics imperfectly documented from direct observations, which are primarily limited to the last 40 years. Whereas large amplitude variations of sea ice have been recorded, especially in the Arctic, with a strikingly fast decrease in recent years partly attributed to the impact of anthropogenic climate changes, little is known about the natural variability of the sea ice cover at multi-decadal to multi-millennial time scales. Hence, there is a need to establish longer sea ice time series to document the full range of sea ice variations under natural forcings. To do this, several approaches based on biogenic or geochemical proxies have been developed from marine, ice core and coastal records. The status of the sea ice proxies has been discussed by the Sea Ice Proxy (SIP) working group endorsed by PAGES during a first workshop held at GEOTOP in Montréal. The present volume contains a set of papers addressing various sea ice proxies and their application to large scale sea ice reconstruction. Here we summarize the contents of the volume, including a table of various proxies available in marine sediments and ice cores, with their possibilities and limitations.