title: Role of the Bering Strait on the hysteresis of the ocean conveyor belt circulation and glacial climate stability.
abstract: Abrupt climate transitions, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, occurred frequently during the last glacial period, specifically from 80-11 thousand years before present, but were nearly absent during interglacial periods and the early stages of glacial periods, when major ice-sheets were still forming. Here we show, with a fully coupled state-of-the-art climate model, that closing the Bering Strait and preventing its throughflow between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans during the glacial period can lead to the emergence of stronger hysteresis behavior of the ocean conveyor belt circulation to create conditions that are conducive to triggering abrupt climate transitions. Hence, it is argued that even for greenhouse warming, abrupt climate transitions similar to those in the last glacial time are unlikely to occur as the Bering Strait remains open.
authors.affiliation: Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80305, USA. ahu@ucar.edu
authors.forename: Aixue
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Gerald A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Meehl
authors.forename: Weiqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timmermann
authors.forename: Bette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Otto-Bliesner
authors.forename: Zhengyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Warren M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Washington
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Large
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abe-Ouchi
authors.forename: Masahide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kimoto
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lambeck
authors.forename: Bingyi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu