Younger Dryas research and its implications for understanding abrupt climatic change

Abstract

The Younger Dryas refers to the final phase of cold, glacial conditions preceding the abrupt climatic warming at the beginning of the Holocene. The existence of the Younger Dryas in Europe has been known for most of this century, although recent research suggests that the Younger Dryas cooling may have been global. Estimates of the timing of the event have also improved in recent years, showing that both the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas were abrupt, occurring within decades. The Younger Dryas has been linked with a large-scale shift of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) to a near glacial mode with a consequent reduction in northward heat transport. This shift in the THC may have been triggered by a discharge of Laurentide ice, combined with meltwater inputs from several locations around the North Atlantic. Further study of the events leading up to the Younger Dryas is necessary for improving theoretical understanding of abrupt climatic change, and for evaluating GCM models which seek to simulate the response of the THC to freshwater forcing. With predicted increases in freshwater input to the North Atlantic resulting from increases in atmospheric CO₂, a future shift in the THC is a possibility. Predicting the magnitude and climatic consequences of such an event depends upon further study of the Younger Dryas and of other abrupt palaeoclimatic changes which involved the THC.