Precession modulates the poleward expansion of atmospheric circulation to the Arctic Ocean

Under sustained global warming, Arctic climate is projected to become more responsive to changes in North Pacific meridional heat transport as a result of teleconnections between low and high latitudes, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstruct subarctic humidity c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2025-01, Vol.16 (1), p.1143-10, Article 1143
Main Authors: Zhong, Yi, Lu, Zhengyao, Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie, Yu, Jimin, Horikawa, Keiji, Dekkers, Mark J., Larrasoaña, Juan C., Clift, Peter D., Weber, Michael E., Vermassen, Flor, Kender, Sev, Sun, Chijun, Yang, Hu, Wang, Xianfeng, Andresen, Camilla S., Liu, Yanguang, Zhang, Haiwei, Dai, Zhengyang, Niu, Lu, Zhang, Jingyu, Feng, Xuguang, Zhao, Debo, Xia, Wenyue, Yang, Sheng, Li, Hai, Liu, Qingsong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/2738
704/106/694/2739
Arctic zone
Atmospheric circulation
Climate change
Climate models
Global warming
Heat
Heat transport
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humidity
Hydroclimate
Ice environments
Latitude
multidisciplinary
Ocean models
Precession
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sea ice
Sediments
Water vapor
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Summary:Under sustained global warming, Arctic climate is projected to become more responsive to changes in North Pacific meridional heat transport as a result of teleconnections between low and high latitudes, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstruct subarctic humidity changes over the past 400 kyr to investigate the role of low-to-high latitude interactions in regulating Arctic hydroclimate. Our reconstruction is based on precipitation-driven sediment input variations in the Subarctic North Pacific (SANP), which reveal a strong precessional cycle in subarctic humidity under the relatively low eccentricity variations that dominated the past four glacial-interglacial cycles. Combined with climate model simulations, we highlight that precession drives meridional shifts in the northern rim of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) and modulates the efficiency of heat and water vapor transfer to the SANP and Arctic regions. Our findings suggest that projections of a northward shift of the NPSG in response to future global warming will lead to wetter conditions in the Arctic Ocean and enhanced sea-ice loss. Subarctic Pacific Ocean sediments and modeling results provide new evidence for precession driving meridional shifts in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and modulating the efficiency of heat and water vapor transfer to the Arctic regions.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-56542-1