Effect of Ocean Gateway Changes under Greenhouse Warmth
2009
Abstract The role of tectonic Southern Ocean gateway changes in driving Antarctic climate change at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary remains a topic of debate. One approach taken in previous idealized modeling studies of gateway effects has been to alter modern boundary conditions, whereby the Drake Passage becomes closed. Here, the authors follow this approach but vary atmospheric pCO2 over a range of values when comparing gateway configurations. They find a significantly greater sensitivity of Antarctic temperatures to Southern Ocean gateway changes when atmospheric pCO2 is high than when concentrations are low and the ambient climate is cool. In particular, the closure of the Drake Passage (DP) gap is a necessary condition for the existence of ice-free Antarctic conditions at high CO2 concentrations in this coupled climate model. The absence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is particularly conducive to warm Antarctic conditions at higher CO2 concentrations, which is markedly different from previ...
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