Seminar

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most vigorously responsive water bodies towards climate changes. The recent decline of the sea ice cover and extend in the Arctic Ocean, however, is not well understand. It is speculated that the change in the depth of halocline is one of the possible controls on regulating Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. The halocline separates the Arctic sea ice from the warm water mass originated from the Atlantic Ocean, namely Atlantic Intermediate Water (AIW) and therefore will inhibit extensive sea ice melting via direct contact with the warm AIW. This project aims to test the variability of the halocline and its relationship with sea ice over the last 50 000 years. By estimating the temperature of deep-water masses using Mg/Ca from ostracod genus Krithe retrieved from sediment cores located at Chukchi Plateau in the Western Arctic Ocean, this research aims at reconstructing the Arctic’s water mass stratification variability, and thus unraveling the fluctuation of halocline thickness in the Chukchi Plateau.