Holocene North Atlantic Gyres and Mediterranean Overturning dynamic through Climate Changes
Funding
ANR (2013-2018)
Project leader
Partner Laboratories
GEOPS (Univ. Paris Saclay, campus Paris Sud Orsay)
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ)
EPOC-CNRS, Université de Bordeaux
CEREGE (CNRS-Univ. Aix-Marseille)
LPGNantes (Université de Nantes)
M2C (Université de Rouen)
Context
The North Atlantic plays a fundamental role in the European climate through its system of meridional ocean circulation, known as Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) the dynamics of which control the salt and heat budgets of the North Atlantic. The intensity of the sub-polar gyre, which is in turn principally governed by atmospheric dynamics and flows of fresh water, today controls the northern limit of the intrusion of salty Mediterranean waters and the flows of sub-tropical Atlantic water reaching northern latitudes. Its dynamics also have a primary impact on the climate of Northern Europe. In this context, changes in the thermohaline circulation of the Mediterranean over the course of sapropel deposition events and exchanges of water masses between the eastern and western basins, on the one hand, and between the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, on the other, still remain relatively unexplored and poorly quantified. Furthermore, the impact of hydrological changes occurring on the European edge of the Mediterranean is poorly constrained even though these Mediterranean waters can have an impact on the salt budgets and on the formation of deep water in the North Atlantic.
Objectives
Our research aims to improve our knowledge of the hydrology of the Mediterranean and its European margin with a view to reconstructing the AMOC and thermohaline circulation in the Mediterranean during sapropel deposition events; we also aim to identify the impact that Mediterranean thermohaline circulation might have on circulation in the North Atlantic.
Associated missions
Mingulay-Rockall, Ice-CTD