Elsevier

Quaternary Science Reviews

Volume 79, 1 November 2013, Pages 168-183
Quaternary Science Reviews

A review of sea ice proxy information from polar ice cores

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Sea ice plays an important role in Earth's climate system. The lack of direct indications of past sea ice coverage, however, means that there is limited knowledge of the sensitivity and rate at which sea ice dynamics are involved in amplifying climate changes. As such, there is a need to develop new proxy records for reconstructing past sea ice conditions. Here we review the advances that have been made in using chemical tracers preserved in ice cores to determine past changes in sea ice cover around Antarctica. Ice core records of sea salt concentration show promise for revealing patterns of sea ice extent particularly over glacial–interglacial time scales. In the coldest climates, however, the sea salt signal appears to lose sensitivity and further work is required to determine how this proxy can be developed into a quantitative sea ice indicator. Methane sulphonic acid (MSA) in near-coastal ice cores has been used to reconstruct quantified changes and interannual variability in sea ice extent over shorter time scales spanning the last ∼160 years, and has potential to be extended to produce records of Antarctic sea ice changes throughout the Holocene. However the MSA ice core proxy also requires careful site assessment and interpretation alongside other palaeoclimate indicators to ensure reconstructions are not biased by non-sea ice factors, and we summarise some recommended strategies for the further development of sea ice histories from ice core MSA. For both proxies the limited information about the production and transfer of chemical markers from the sea ice zone to the Antarctic ice sheets remains an issue that requires further multidisciplinary study. Despite some exploratory and statistical work, the application of either proxy as an indicator of sea ice change in the Arctic also remains largely unknown. As information about these new ice core proxies builds, so too does the potential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of past changes in sea ice and its role in both long and short-term climate changes.

Introduction

Sea ice is a crucial component of the polar climate system. Its presence or absence modifies the albedo of the ocean, as well as the exchange of heat, moisture, momentum, and trace gases such as CO2, between the atmosphere and ocean. It plays a major role in the production of deep waters in the ocean, and therefore in the entire global ocean circulation system (Dieckmann and Hellmer, 2010). Its strong seasonal cycle provides arguably the most visible sign (to an external observer) of Earth's varying climate, and despite continuing discussion about the exact mechanism, it certainly plays a significant role in the polar amplification of climate change (Serreze and Barry, 2011). In addition to its climatic role, it is of major importance for the biology of the polar oceans (Dieckmann and Hellmer, 2010), for the atmospheric chemistry of the polar lower atmosphere (e.g. Simpson et al., 2007), and for the economy and geopolitics of the Arctic region.

For all these reasons, it is important to be able to predict future changes in sea ice under different future forcing scenarios. Arctic ice extent has been reducing sharply in the last three decades (Comiso, 2012). However, it remains difficult to model sea ice trends: in the CMIP3 models, there were large differences for the Arctic between models, and between models and observations, even for the hemispheric total (Stroeve et al., 2007). While the models contributing to CMIP5 are more consistent with observations (Stroeve et al., 2012), there remains significant uncertainty in predicting future trends.

To improve the models and to gain a better understanding of the links between sea ice and climate, long observational datasets are required. Unfortunately, satellite observations extend back only to the late 1970s, so before that time, we are reliant on observations that are sporadic in both time and space, and on proxy data. A number of methods have been used to infer past sea ice conditions, either directly or indirectly (Polyak et al., 2010), and here we discuss the role that ice core data may play in that constellation of techniques.

Section snippets

The nature of ice core sea ice proxies

The majority of palaeo-data on past sea ice rests on marine sediments, in which the changing occurrence of chemicals or biological organisms associated with sea ice are recorded down the core. Particularly large datasets have been created based on the occurrence of sea ice-related diatoms in the Antarctic (Gersonde et al., 2005), and of dinoflagellate cysts in the Arctic (de Vernal et al., 2005). More recently, additional information has come from measurements of the concentration of the Arctic

Antarctic ice core sea salt records as a proxy for sea ice

Over most of the globe, sea salt aerosol is generated by bubble bursting and sea spray over open water (de Leeuw et al., 2011). While large particles are deposited rapidly over the ocean, smaller particles are transported over the continents, with the result that the amount of sea salt deposited at an inland site falls off rapidly with distance from the coast over at least the first few hundred km (Guelle et al., 2001).

Sea salt concentration or deposition flux can be measured in ice cores

MSA production around Antarctica

Antarctic sea ice plays a key role as a habitat sustaining the ecosystem in high latitudes of the Southern Ocean. Sea ice supports a huge biomass of Antarctic species such as phytoplankton and krill, which is reflected by the many larger animals that journey there to feed, including penguins, seals and whales. It is this biological activity associated with sea ice that led to studies searching for a biogenic marker that could be quantified and used to estimate sea ice coverage. Dimethylsulphide

Ice core proxies for Arctic sea ice?

The sea ice situation in the Arctic is much more complex than for Antarctica. The radial symmetry of Antarctica allows us to assess sea ice extent in terms of a single number (latitude) in many sectors. In Greenland, in contrast, there are potential sea salt and MSA sources in all directions. In addition, Arctic ice has a much greater tendency to be thick multi-year ice, which is less likely to have either frost flowers or saline snow on top of it, and will prevent the biological production of

Conclusions

Ice core records may possess in their chemical impurities vast amounts of information about past sea ice changes that would be invaluable for assessing the role that sea ice dynamics have played in past climate changes. Variations in MSA have been utilized to reconstruct interannual sea ice variability and the patterns of sea ice decline around Antarctica since the mid-19th century, and there is potential that these types of reconstructions could be extended across the Holocene epoch. The

Acknowledgements

NJA is supported by a Queen Elizabeth II fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council under DP110101161. EWW's contribution to this study is part of the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. This review paper was written as part of the Sea Ice Proxies working group funded by PAGES. This is Past4Future contribution number 35. The research leading to these results has received funding from the

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