Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Aug 28;46(16):9930-9939.
doi: 10.1029/2019GL084249. Epub 2019 Aug 27.

Organic Compounds in a Sub-Antarctic Ice Core: A Potential Suite of Sea Ice Markers

A C F King  1   2 , E R Thomas  1 , J B Pedro  3   4 , B Markle  5 , M Potocki  6   7 , S L Jackson  1   8 , E Wolff  9 , M Kalberer  2   10
Affiliations

Organic Compounds in a Sub-Antarctic Ice Core: A Potential Suite of Sea Ice Markers

A C F King et al. Geophys Res Lett. .

Abstract

Investigation of organic compounds in ice cores can potentially unlock a wealth of new information in these climate archives. We present results from the first ever ice core drilled on sub-Antarctic island Bouvet, representing a climatologically important but understudied region. We analyze a suite of novel and more familiar organic compounds in the ice core, alongside commonly measured ions. Methanesulfonic acid shows a significant, positive correlation to winter sea ice concentration, as does a fatty acid compound, oleic acid. Both may be sourced from spring phytoplankton blooms, which are larger following greater sea ice extent in the preceding winter. Oxalate, formate, and acetate are positively correlated to sea ice concentration in summer, but sources of these require further investigation. This study demonstrates the potential application of organic compounds from the marine biosphere in generating multiproxy sea ice records, which is critical in improving our understanding of past sea ice changes.

Keywords: Bouvet; biomarkers; ice core; sea ice; sub‐Antarctic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maps of spatial correlation coefficients between (a) MSA, (b) oleic acid, and (c) oxalate with sea ice concentration in the region. Dotted black lines define areas of positive correlation significant at the p < 0.05 level. MSA = methanesulfonic acid; NSIDC = National Snow and Ice Data Centre.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example 1‐month averages of 5‐day back trajectories for each of February and September 2008–2010. Scales are log values. Plots include the outline of the oleic acid/sea ice concentration (SIC) correlation region as defined in Figure 1b.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Oleic acid, MSA and maximum (September) sea ice extent time series with corresponding linear trends (c) for the region (a) 45–70°S, 50°W to 10°E. (b) Significant positive linear correlation between oleic acid and MSA, r = 0.79; p < 0.01. MSA and oleic acid are presented for two time periods (2001–2015 and 2001–2016) to account for any dominance of the trends by the high 2016 values, for which further description is found in section 3.2. MSA = methanesulfonic acid.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abram, N. J. , Curran, M. A. J. , Mulvaney, R. , & Vance, T. (2008). The preservation of methanesulphonic acid in frozen ice‐core samples. Journal of Glaciology, 54(187), 680–684. 10.3189/002214308786570890 - DOI
    1. Abram, N. J. , Thomas, E. R. , McConnell, J. R. , Mulvaney, R. , Bracegirdle, T. J. , Sime, L. C. , & Aristarain, A. J. (2010). Ice core evidence for a 20th century decline of sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, D23101 10.1029/2010JD014644 - DOI
    1. Abram, N. J. , Wolff, E. W. , & Curran, M. A. J. (2013). A review of sea ice proxy information from polar ice cores. Quaternary Science Reviews, 79, 168–183. 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.011 - DOI
    1. Baboukas, E. D. , Kanakidou, M. , & Mihalopoulos, N. (2000). Carboxylic acids in gas and particulate phase above the Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105(D11), 14,459–14,471. 10.1029/1999JD900977 - DOI
    1. Comiso, J. C. (2017). Bootstrap sea ice concentrations from Nimbus‐7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I‐SSMIS , Version 3 [Indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. 10.5067/7Q8HCCWS4I0R - DOI

LinkOut - more resources