Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period

Renssen, Hans; Mairesse, Aurélien; Goosse, Hugues; Mathiot, Pierre; Heiri, Oliver; Roche, Didier M.; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Valdes, Paul J.. 2015 Multiple causes of the Younger Dryas cold period. Nature Geoscience, 8 (12). 946-949. 10.1038/ngeo2557

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2557

Abstract/Summary

The Younger Dryas cooling event disrupted the overall warming trend in the North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Climate change during the Younger Dryas was abrupt7, 8, 9, and thus provides insights into the sensitivity of the climate system to perturbations. The sudden Younger Dryas cooling has traditionally been attributed to a shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation by meltwater discharges10, 11, 12, 13. However, alternative explanations such as strong negative radiative forcing14 and a shift in atmospheric circulation15 have also been offered. Here we investigate the importance of these different forcings in coupled climate model experiments constrained by data assimilation. We find that the Younger Dryas climate signal as registered in proxy evidence is best simulated using a combination of processes: a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, moderate negative radiative forcing and an altered atmospheric circulation. We conclude that none of the individual mechanisms alone provide a plausible explanation for the Younger Dryas cold period. We suggest that the triggers for abrupt climate changes such as the Younger Dryas are more complex than suggested so far, and that studies on the response of the climate system to perturbations should account for this complexity.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/ngeo2557
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Polar Oceans
ISSN:	1752-0894
Date made live:	25 Jan 2016 13:29 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/512697

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1038/ngeo2557

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Polar Oceans

ISSN:

1752-0894

Date made live:

25 Jan 2016 13:29 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/512697