title: Enhanced modern heat transfer to the Arctic by warm Atlantic Water.
abstract: The Arctic is responding more rapidly to global warming than most other areas on our planet. Northward-flowing Atlantic Water is the major means of heat advection toward the Arctic and strongly affects the sea ice distribution. Records of its natural variability are critical for the understanding of feedback mechanisms and the future of the Arctic climate system, but continuous historical records reach back only ~150 years. Here, we present a multidecadal-scale record of ocean temperature variations during the past 2000 years, derived from marine sediments off Western Svalbard (79°N). We find that early-21st-century temperatures of Atlantic Water entering the Arctic Ocean are unprecedented over the past 2000 years and are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming.
authors.affiliation: Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Literature, 53151 Mainz, Germany. rspielhagen@ifm-geomar.de
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Spielhagen
authors.forename: Kirstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: Steffen Aagaard
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zamelczyk
authors.forename: Evguenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kandiano
authors.forename: Gereon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Budeus
authors.forename: Katrine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Husum
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Marchitto
authors.forename: Morten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hald