[1] Between 20 and 80 kyr ago several cooling cycles occurred in the Northern Hemisphere which culminated in a discharge of icebergs into the North Atlantic. These so called ‘‘Heinrich Events’’ (HEs) were followed by an abrupt shift to a warmer climate. Here we use a coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea ice model to study the response of the climate system under glacial conditions to a hypothetical HE....

The internal and external North Atlantic Sector variability is investigated by means of a multimillennial control run and forced experiments with the Kiel Climate Model (KCM). The internal variability is studied by analyzing the control run. The externally forced variability is investigated in a run with periodic millennial solar forcing and in greenhouse warming experiments with enhanced carbo...

The Baltic Sea has traditionally been considered as a semi-enclosed marginal sea with little or no inß uence on the adjacent oceans. We employ an eddy-permitting, coupled ice-ocean model of the Pan-Arctic region to study the Baltic Sea, especially its circulation and property exchanges with the North Sea and other regions. Using this high-resolution and large scale model we focus here on the fr...

The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) represents a significant driver of Northern Hemisphere climate, but the forcing mechanisms pacing the AMO remain poorly understood. Here we use the available proxy records to investigate the influence of solar and volcanic forcing on the AMO over the last ~450 years. The evidence suggests that external forcing played a dominant role in pacing the AMO ...

Based on specimens collected during the sampling campaigns in the Northern Adriatic from 2003-2010, the diversity of genus Terebellides (Polychaeta; Trichobranchidae) was studied and three species are reported for the Northern Adriatic Sea: Terebellides gracilis Malm, 1874, Terebellides mediterranea spec. nov., and Terebellides stroemii Sars, 1835. Terebellides stroemii was the only species pre...

The early Late Pliocene (3.6 to ∼3.0 million years ago) is the last extended interval in Earth's history when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were comparable to today's and global climate was warmer. Yet a severe global glaciation during marine isotope stage (MIS) M2 interrupted this phase of global warmth ∼3.30 million years ago, and is seen as a premature attempt of the climate system to estab...

Any reduction in global mean near-surface temperature due to a future decline in solar activity is likely to be a small fraction of projected anthropogenic warming. However, variability in ultraviolet solar irradiance is linked to modulation of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oscillations, suggesting the potential for larger regional surface climate effects. Here, we explore possible impacts thro...

Due to lack of reliable proxies from the Westerlies-dominant region, the strength change of Northern Hemisphere Westerlies remains poorly understood. The aim of this study is to provide a reliable paleoclimatic proxy about the Northern Hemisphere Westerlies change. Here we report a 30.7 m thick loess section from the Ili basin directly controlled by the Westerlies. Based on optically stimulated...

This thesis addresses several aspects of the problem of determining the effect of the low-frequency eddy variability on the mean circulation of the Western North Atlantic. A framework for this study is first established by scale analysis of the eddy and mean terms in the mean momentum, vorticity, and heat balances in three regions of the Western North Atlantic -the northern recirculation, the s...

STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE There are two species of pilot whales in the Western Atlantic: the Atlantic or long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, and the short-finned pilot whale, G. macrorhynchus. These species are difficult to identify to the species level at sea; therefore, some of the descriptive material below refers to Globicephala sp. and is identified as such. The specie...