Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model
Abstract
Variations in terrestrial oxygen-isotope reconstructions from ice cores and speleothems have been primarily attributed to climatic changes of surface air temperature, precipitation amount, or atmospheric circulation. In this work, we demonstrate with the fully coupled isotope-enabled Community Earth System Model an additional process contributing to the oxygen-isotope variations during glacial meltwater events. This process, termed “the direct meltwater effect,” involves propagating large amounts of isotopically depleted meltwater throughout the hydrological cycle and is independent of climatic changes. We find that the direct meltwater effect can make up 15–35% of the δ18O signals in precipitation over Greenland and eastern Brazil for large freshwater forcings (0.25–0.50 sverdrup (106 m3/s)). Model simulations further demonstrate that the direct meltwater effect increases with the magnitude and duration of the freshwater forcing and is sensitive to both the location and shape of the meltwater. These new modeling results have important implications for past climate interpretations of δ18O.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Center for Climatic Research; Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Atmospheric Science Program and Dept. of Geography
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Lab.
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Geoscience
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore). Earth Observatory of Singapore and Asian School of the Environment
- NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Computer Science
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Inst. of Arctic and Alpine Research
- Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1441337
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1415072
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-18-20282
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276; TRN: US1900907
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396; AGS‐1401778/1401803/1401802; NSFC41630527; 1566432
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 44; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; direct meltwater effect; oxygen-isotope records; ice cores; speleothem records; meltwater
Citation Formats
Zhu, Jiang, Liu, Zhengyu, Brady, Esther C., Otto-Bliesner, Bette L., Marcott, Shaun A., Zhang, Jiaxu, Wang, Xianfeng, Nusbaumer, Jesse, Wong, Tony E., Jahn, Alexandra, and Noone, David. Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2017GL076253.
Zhu, Jiang, Liu, Zhengyu, Brady, Esther C., Otto-Bliesner, Bette L., Marcott, Shaun A., Zhang, Jiaxu, Wang, Xianfeng, Nusbaumer, Jesse, Wong, Tony E., Jahn, Alexandra, & Noone, David. Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076253
Zhu, Jiang, Liu, Zhengyu, Brady, Esther C., Otto-Bliesner, Bette L., Marcott, Shaun A., Zhang, Jiaxu, Wang, Xianfeng, Nusbaumer, Jesse, Wong, Tony E., Jahn, Alexandra, and Noone, David. Thu .
"Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076253. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1441337.
@article{osti_1441337,
title = {Investigating the Direct Meltwater Effect in Terrestrial Oxygen-Isotope Paleoclimate Records Using an Isotope-Enabled Earth System Model},
author = {Zhu, Jiang and Liu, Zhengyu and Brady, Esther C. and Otto-Bliesner, Bette L. and Marcott, Shaun A. and Zhang, Jiaxu and Wang, Xianfeng and Nusbaumer, Jesse and Wong, Tony E. and Jahn, Alexandra and Noone, David},
abstractNote = {Variations in terrestrial oxygen-isotope reconstructions from ice cores and speleothems have been primarily attributed to climatic changes of surface air temperature, precipitation amount, or atmospheric circulation. In this work, we demonstrate with the fully coupled isotope-enabled Community Earth System Model an additional process contributing to the oxygen-isotope variations during glacial meltwater events. This process, termed “the direct meltwater effect,” involves propagating large amounts of isotopically depleted meltwater throughout the hydrological cycle and is independent of climatic changes. We find that the direct meltwater effect can make up 15–35% of the δ18O signals in precipitation over Greenland and eastern Brazil for large freshwater forcings (0.25–0.50 sverdrup (106 m3/s)). Model simulations further demonstrate that the direct meltwater effect increases with the magnitude and duration of the freshwater forcing and is sensitive to both the location and shape of the meltwater. These new modeling results have important implications for past climate interpretations of δ18O.},
doi = {10.1002/2017GL076253},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 24,
volume = 44,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Thu Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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