Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Experimental Protocol for Biodiesel Production with Isolation of Alkenones as Coproducts from Commercial Isochrysis Algal Biomass
Published on: June 24, 2016
Holocene oscillations in temperature and salinity of the surface subpolar North Atlantic
David J R Thornalley1, Harry Elderfield, I Nick McCave
1The Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK. d.thornalley@cantab.net
Abstract:
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) transports warm salty surface waters to high latitudes, where they cool, sink and return southwards at depth. Through its attendant meridional heat transport, the AMOC helps maintain a warm northwestern European climate, and acts as a control on the global climate. Past climate fluctuations during the Holocene epoch ( approximately 11,700 years ago to the present) have been linked with changes in North Atlantic Ocean circulation. The behaviour of the surface flowing salty water that helped drive overturning during past climatic changes is, however, not well known. Here we investigate the temperature and salinity changes of a substantial surface inflow to a region of deep-water formation throughout the Holocene. We find that the inflow has undergone millennial-scale variations in temperature and salinity ( approximately 3.5 degrees C and approximately 1.5 practical salinity units, respectively) most probably controlled by subpolar gyre dynamics. The temperature and salinity variations correlate with previously reported periods of rapid climate change. The inflow becomes more saline during enhanced freshwater flux to the subpolar North Atlantic. Model studies predict a weakening of AMOC in response to enhanced Arctic freshwater fluxes, although the inflow can compensate on decadal timescales by becoming more saline. Our data suggest that such a negative feedback mechanism may have operated during past intervals of climate change.
Related Concept Videos
What is Climate?
Global Climate Change
Isothermal Processes
An ideal gas can also undergo isothermal expansion or compression.
For example, consider 1 mole of an ideal gas inside an isolated cylinder at initial volume V...
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Marine Microbial Ecology
Deep Sea Microbial Ecology

