Mechanisms for Sea Level Change During Marine Isotope Stage 3

A number of climate proxies indicate that a ~7-kyr oscillation occurred during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, of which change in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and attendant change in cross-equatorial ocean heat transport played an integral role. The timing of MIS-3 sea-level changes is clearly linked to this climate oscillation. We applied the GENESIS (V2.2, GEN2) AGCM in a series of sensitivity tests to evaluate the response of the mass balances of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets to changes in the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic SSTs that are part of this climate oscillation. To evaluate the sensitivity of ice-sheet mass balance to changes in SSTs during MIS 3, we use the Byrd temperature record as a proxy for establishing the timing of tropical SST changes, and the GISP2 ¿¡¨ record as a proxy for establishing the timing of well-established changes in North Atlantic SSTs. On this basis, we identify four primary combinations of tropical and North Atlantic SSTs during each of the MIS 3 oscillations that we used to prescribe global SST fields in our simulations: (i) cold tropics, cold North Atlantic, (ii) warm tropics, cold North Atlantic, (iii) cold tropics, warm North Atlantic, and (iv) warm tropics, warm North Atlantic. Our modeled sea-level history is characterized by four fluctuations that are remarkably similar to those inferred from several other proxies of sea level change, including the New Guinea coral-reef record, benthic ¡¨¿ records, and the Siddall-03 Red Sea ¡¨¿ record. Our record also shares a similar structure, within dating uncertainties, to the Arz-07 Red Sea sea-level reconstruction. Our modeled sea-level changes (order of 10 m) are similar to those derived from the New Guinea coral record (10-15 m), are comparable, within error, to those inferred from the Red Sea records, but are substantially less than needed to explain the benthic ¡¨¿ records, suggesting either a greater ice-sheet contribution than we have modeled or the need for parallel changes in North Atlantic deep water and Antarctic Intermediate Water temperature.