Greenland ice-core data show that the multiannual variability in North Atlantic climate has been increasing in the latter part of the Holocene. Statistically significant trends were established before the Industrial Revolution. A general inverse correlation exists between variability and temperature, and may be linked to North Atlantic oceanic heat transport. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Analysis of ice from Dye-3, Greenland, has demonstrated that the transition between the Younger Dryas and Holocene climate periods occurred over a 40-year period. A near annually resolved, multiparameter record of the transition recorded in the GISP2 core from Summit, Greenland, shows that most of the transition occurred in a series of steps with durations of about 5 years. Some climate proxies associated with mid-latitude sources appear to have changed about 15 years before climate proxies associated with more northern regions. Changes in atmospheric water vapor are likely to have played a large role in the climate transition.

Changing climate conditions affect dust emissions and the global dust cycle, which in turn affects climate and biogeochemistry. In this study we use observationally constrained model reconstructions of the global dust cycle since the Last Glacial Maximum, combined with different simplified assumptions of atmospheric and sea ice processing of dust-borne iron, to provide estimates of soluble iron deposition to the oceans. For different climate conditions, we discuss uncertainties in model-based estimates of atmospheric processing and dust deposition to key oceanic regions, highlighting the large degree of uncertainty of this important variable for ocean biogeochemistry and the global carbon cycle. We also show the role of sea ice acting as a time buffer and processing agent, which results in a delayed and pulse-like soluble iron release into the ocean during the melting season, with monthly peaks up to ~17 Gg/month released into the Southern Oceans during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).

Greenland ice core records provide clear evidence of rapid changes in climate in a variety of climate indicators. In this work, rapid climate change events in the Northern and Southern hemispheres are compared on the basis of an examination of changes in atmospheric circulation developed from two ice cores. High-resolution glaciochemical series, covering the period 10,000 to 16,000 years ago, from a central Greenland ice core and a new site in east Antarctica display similar variability. These findings suggest that rapid climate change events occur more frequently in Antarctica than previously demonstrated.