An objective of the study is to get new biogeographic information on the modern polycystine radiolarians from the high-latitude North Atlantic. The quantitative radiolarian dataset was compiled from publications and own micropaleontological counts from samples of the bottom surface sediments of the North Atlantic north of 40N and Nordic Seas. Standard statistical treatment of micropaleontologic...

Owing to the lack of absolutely dated oceanographic information before the modern instrumental period, there is currently significant debate as to the role played by North Atlantic Ocean dynamics in previous climate transitions (for example, Medieval Climate Anomaly-Little Ice Age, MCA-LIA). Here we present analyses of a millennial-length, annually resolved and absolutely dated marine δ18O arch...

[1] Paleonutrient proxies currently provide the strongest constraints on the past spatial distribution of deep water masses. We review the state of knowledge derived from the trace metal proxy Cd/Ca for the Atlantic Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We compile published benthic foraminiferal Cd/Ca data, supplemented with new data, to reconstruct meridional Cd sections through the Hol...

Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) are highly valued and heavily exploited, and critical uncertainties regarding their population structure hinder effective management. Evidence supports the existence of two breeding populations of ABFT; a western population in the Gulf of Mexico and an eastern population in the Mediterranean Sea; both of which migrate and mix in the North Atlantic. Conventional tagg...

Two coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models developed at GFDL show differing stability properties of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project/ Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (CMIP/PMIP) coordinated “water-hosing” experiment. In contrast to the R30 model in which the “off” state of the THC is stable, it is unstable in the...

The European “Slope Current” provides a shelfedge conduit for Atlantic Water, a substantial fraction of which is destined for the northern North Sea, with implications for regional hydrography and ecosystems. Drifters drogued at 50 m in the European Slope Current at the Hebridean shelf break follow a wide range of pathways, indicating highly variable Atlantic inflow to the North Sea. Slope Curr...

To the Editor: Alter et al. (1) use estimates of genetic diversity in eastern North Pacific gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, to infer historic levels of abundance of this species in the North Pacific. However, the expected level of genetic diversity within local populations connected by gene flow to other populations is that of the global population (2). Alter et al. (1) assessed the possibl...

Neodymium isotope ratios in the authigenic ferromanganese oxide component in a southeastern Atlantic core reveal a history of the global overturning circulation intensity through the last deglaciation. From a minimum during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) began to strengthen between 18 and 17 kyr cal. BP, approximately 2000–3000 years before the Bølling warming....

Against the backdrop of warming of the Northern Hemisphere it has recently been acknowledged that North Atlantic temperature changes undergo considerable variability over multidecadal periods. The leading component of natural low-frequency temperature variability has been termed the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Presently, correlative studies on the biological impact of the AMO on ma...