Enhanced North Pacific subtropical gyre circulation during the late Holocene

作者：Yancheng Zhang, Xufeng Zheng, Deming Kong, Hong Yan, Zhonghui Liu · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-021-26218-7 · 被引用次数：28 · 研究领域：Geology and Paleoclimatology Research、Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena、Isotope Analysis in Ecology

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre circulation redistributes heat from the Western Pacific Warm Pool towards the mid- to high-latitude North Pacific. However, the driving mechanisms of this circulation and how it changed over the Holocene remain poorly understood. Here, we present alkenone-based sea surface temperature reconstructions along the Kuroshio, California and Alaska currents that cover the past ~7,000 years. These and other paleorecords collectively demonstrate a coherent intensification of the boundary currents, and thereby the basin-scale subtropical gyre circulation, since ~3,000-4,000 years ago. Such enhanced circulation during the late Holocene appears to have resulted from a long-term southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, associated with Holocene ocean cooling. Our results imply that the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre circulation could be weakened under future global warming.