A review of sea ice proxy information from polar ice cores
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
References (116)
- et al.
Methanesulphonic acid (MSA) stratigraphy from a Talos Dome ice core as a tool in depicting sea ice changes and southern atmospheric circulation over the previous 140 years
Atmospheric Environment
(2009) - et al.
A novel chemical fossil of palaeo sea ice: IP25
Organic Geochemistry
(2007) - et al.
The Arctic sea ice biomarker IP25: A review of current understanding and recommendations for future directions
Quaternary Science Reviews
(2013) - et al.
Late Quaternary sea ice history in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean as recorded by diatom assemblages
Marine Micropaleontology
(2004) - et al.
Reconstruction of sea-surface conditions at middle to high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) based on dinoflagellate cyst assemblages
Quaternary Science Reviews
(2005) - et al.
Sea ice and wind variability during the Holocene in East Antarctica: insight on middle-high latitude coupling
Quaternary Science Reviews
(2010) - et al.
The role of seasonality in abrupt climate change
Quaternary Science Reviews
(2005) - et al.
Reconstruction of millennial changes in dust emission, transport and regional sea ice coverage using the deep EPICA ice cores from the Atlantic and Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
(2007) - et al.
Sea-surface temperature and sea ice distribution of the Southern Ocean at the EPILOG Last Glacial Maximum – a circum-Antarctic view based on siliceous microfossil records
Quaternary Science Reviews
(2005) - et al.
Causes of seasonal and daily variations in aerosol sea-salt concentrations at a coastal Antarctic station
Atmospheric Environment
(1998)
Abrupt cooling of Antarctic surface waters and sea ice expansion in the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean at 5000 cal yr B.P
Quaternary Research
Temporal variation in Antarctic sea-ice: analysis of a long term fast-ice record from the South Orkney Islands
Deep-Sea Research I
History of sea ice in the Arctic
Quaternary Science Reviews
Ice shelf history from petrographic and foraminiferal evidence, Northeast Antarctic Peninsula
Quaternary Science Reviews
Potential and limitations of marine and ice core sea ice proxies: an example from the Indian Ocean sector
Quaternary Science Reviews
Processes and impacts of Arctic amplification: a research synthesis
Global and Planetary Change
The preservation of methanesulphonic acid in frozen ice-core samples
Journal of Glaciology
Environmental signals in a highly resolved ice core from James Ross Island, Antarctica
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Ice core records as sea ice proxies: an evaluation from the Weddell Sea region of Antarctica
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Ice core evidence for a 20th century decline of sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Spatial distribution of biogenic sulphur compounds (MSA, nssSO42−) in the northern Victoria Land-Dome C-Wilkes Land area, East Antarctica
Annals of Glaciology
Sea-spray deposition in Antarctic coastal and plateau areas from ITASE traverses
Annals of Glaciology
Central Antarctica: atmospheric chemical composition and atmospheric transport
Antarctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979-2006
Journal of Geophysical Research-oceans
Large decadal decline of the Arctic Multiyear ice cover
Journal of Climate
Ice-sheet record of recent sea-ice behaviour and polynya variability in the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica
Journal of Geophysical Research
Dimethyl sulfide in the Southern Ocean: seasonality and flux
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Spatial distribution of dimethylsulfide and dimethylsulfoniopropionate in the Australasian sector of the Southern Ocean
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Seasonal characteristics of the major ions in the high-accumulation Dome Summit South ice core, Law Dome, Antarctica
Post-depositional movement of methanesulphonic acid at Law Dome, Antarctica, and the influence of accumulation rate
Annals of Glaciology
Ice core evidence for Antarctic sea ice decline since the 1950s
Science
Production flux of sea salt aerosol
Reviews of Geophysics
The importance of sea ice: an overview
A 200 year sulfate record from 16 Antarctic ice cores and associations with Southern Ocean sea-ice extent
Frost flowers growing in the Arctic ocean-atmosphere-sea ice-snow interface: 1. Chemical composition
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Imprint of large-scale atmospheric transport patterns on sea-salt records in northern Greenland ice cores
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Glacial/interglacial changes in mineral dust and sea-salt records in polar ice cores: sources, transport, and deposition
Reviews of Geophysics
Prevalence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave over the last two millenia recorded in Dronning Maud Land ice
Geophysical Research Letters
Covariation of sea ice and methanesulphonic acid in Wilhelm II Lnad, East Antarctica
Annals of Glaciology
Influence of large-scale teleconnection patterns on methane sulfonate ice core records in Dronning Maud Land
Journal of Geophysical Research
Dimethylsulfide and the alga Phaeocystis-Pouchetii in Antarctic coastal waters
Marine Biology
Mid latitude winter climate variability in the South Indian and southwest Pacific regions since 1300 AD
Climate Dynamics
Oxygen 18/16 variability in Greenland snow and ice with 10(-3)- to 10(5)-year time resolution
Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans
Variability of sea-ice extent in baffin bay over the last millennium
Climatic Change
Influence of the source formulation on modeling the atmospheric global distribution of sea salt aerosol
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Chemistry of sea-salt particles and inorganic halogen species in Antarctic regions: compositional differences between coastal and inland stations
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Modeled methanesulfonic acid (MSA) deposition in Antarctica and its relationship to sea ice
Journal of Geophysical Research
The influence of regional circulation patterns on wet and dry mineral dust and sea salt deposition over Greenland
Climate Dynamics
Antarctic sea ice extent during the Holocene reconstructed from inland ice core evidence
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Antarctic and Southern Ocean sea-ice and climate trends
Annals of Glaciology
Cited by (112)
Investigating halogens and MSA in the Southern Hemisphere: A spatial analysis
2024, Atmospheric EnvironmentSea ice in the northern North Atlantic through the Holocene: Evidence from ice cores and marine sediment records
2021, Quaternary Science ReviewsCitation Excerpt :This section does not provide a full and exhaustive description of such markers, but rather presents the key aspects behind their interpretation in ice records. For a more in-depth analysis of sodium as a sea ice marker, see the review of Abram et al. (2013). Bromine and iodine are discussed as sea ice proxies in Vallelonga et al. (2021) and with a focus on atmospheric processes in Simpson et al. (2007) and Saiz-Lopez et al. (2012).
Sea-ice reconstructions from bromine and iodine in ice cores
2021, Quaternary Science ReviewsSulfur aerosols in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Tibetan Plateau: Current knowledge and future perspectives
2021, Earth-Science ReviewsContinuous flow analysis methods for sodium, magnesium and calcium detection in the Skytrain ice core
2022, Journal of Glaciology