Bakker, P; Govin, A; Thornalley, D; Roche, D; Renssen, H; (2015) Modeling deep ocean flow speeds and δ13C during the Last Interglacial: Towards a more direct model-data comparison. Past Global Changes Magazine , 23 (1) pp. 18-19. 10.22498/pages.23.1.18.

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Abstract

Investigating past changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) provides us with clues about the possible multi-decadal to centennial response of the AMOC to projected global warming. Realistic and physically consistent evidence about past changes can be obtained from combining ocean model simulations of past scenarios with real-world proxy data. The common approach for this is to qualitatively compare the model output, i.e. the simulated stream function of maximum AMOC with paleocanographic reconstructions, e.g. foraminiferal δ13C as a proxy for deep sea ventilation changes (Duplessy 1981; Shackleton 1977), or sortable silt as a proxy for bottom water flow speed (McCave et al. 1995). However, this approach is limited to being semi-quantitative at best because (i) different paleoceanographic proxies record different aspects of the AMOC and (ii) comparing these proxies to climate model outputs is not trivial since non of the proxies record the physical overturning as expressed by the stream function. We therefore simulated the water flow speed and δ13C directly within the ocean circulation model. This allows us to discuss what aspects of AMOC changes the two AMOC proxies record, and how this depends on the geographical context.

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