Deconstructing the Last Glacial termination: the role of millennial and orbital-scale forcings

The impacts of deglacial meltwater forcing on the South Atlantic Ocean deep circulation since the Last Glacial Maximum

“…5f). This sequence of events is coherent with the results of Menviel et al (2011). They discuss that melting from both LIS and AIS contributed to the sea level rise associated with MWP-1A.…”

“…Menviel et al (2011), using an earth system model of intermediate complexity forced by continuously varying boundary conditions and a hypothetical profile of freshwater forcing, were able to simulate H1, the BA warm period, the Older Dryas, the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) and the YD in close agreement with paleo-proxy data. The freshwater flux and freshwater transport play an important role in inhibiting heat release from the ocean and in determining dense water sinking regions.…”

Deglacial ice sheet meltdown: orbital pacemaking and CO<sub>2</sub> effects

“…Reconstructions of the deglacial drainage chronology and drainage locations (Tarasov and Peltier, 2006), and atmosphere-ocean model studies (Mikolajewicz et al, 1997;Roche et al, 2009;Liu et al, 2009;Okazaki et al, 2010;Menviel et al, 2011) suggested that meltwater from the Laurentide ice sheet led to reduced North Atlantic Deep Water formation after the LGM. The associated reduction of the northward heat transport in the Atlantic may have first led to a slowdown of the deglaciation.…”

Impact of ice sheet meltwater fluxes on the climate evolution at the onset of the Last Interglacial

“…The retreat of the WAIS, which is believed to have been grounded at the edge of the continental shelf during the penultimate glaciation, generated a large anomalous flux of freshwater into the SO. Such freshwater forcing could have had a substantial influence on the SO configuration in terms of sea ice extent and ocean circulation as shown in model experiments for the last deglaciation (Menviel et al, 2011), for future global warming scenarios (Swingedouw et al, 2008), and for the present day . The impact of increased Antarctic FWFs is thought to consist of a surface ocean freshening, stratification of the surface ocean, and cooling, in turn promoting sea ice growth (e.g.…”