Glacial abrupt transitions in ocean circulation were much slower than ice-core records imply
Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events during the last ice age are thought to reflect rapid shifts in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Greenland ice cores suggest warming transitions within only a few decades—or even just over 10 years. Using precisely dated speleothem oxygen-isotope records from the Asian monsoon region, we have shown that the same DO warmings unfolded over more than a century. Isotope modeling revealed that Greenland records primarily capture a rapid atmospheric reorganization triggered by the initial sea-ice retreat in the northeastern North Atlantic, whereas the parallel AMOC recovery and hemispheric thermal adjustment proceeded much more slowly. These findings reveal that natural AMOC transitions evolved more slowly than the rapid North Greenland oxygen-isotope shifts would imply, thereby refining our understanding of “abruptness” during DO events.
Authors
- Youfeng Ning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2327-7307)
- Yuao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1637-634X)
- Richard Lawrence Edwards (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7027-5881)
- Yuchen Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2449-8718)
- Xiyu Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7611-0244)
- Kan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7973-7261)
- Hai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-9458)
- Gayatri Kathayat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9333-9385)
- Christo Buizert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2227-1747)
- Ashish Sinha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5700-2451)
- Xu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1833-9689)
- Sune Olander Rasmussen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4177-3611)
- Anders M. Svensson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4364-6085)
- Gregor Knorr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8317-5046)
- Martin Werner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6473-0243)
- Andrea Columbu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5410-062X)
- Carlos Pérez‐Mejías (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8370-9271)
- Stephen Barker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7870-6431)
- Liangcheng Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1932-7102)
- Yongjin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6021-2724)
- Haiwei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0855-1283)
- Youwei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446-1371)
- Hanying Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7915-9828)
- Rishui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2951-7018)
- Wenjing Du
Institutions
- University of Pisa (IT)
- Yunnan Normal University (CN)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Oregon State University (US)
- British Antarctic Survey (GB)
- Nanjing Normal University (CN)
- University of Bremen (DE)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- California State University, Dominguez Hills (US)
- Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN)
- Institute of Earth Environment (CN)
- Guizhou Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2026-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aed4270
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00