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Sea Salt Sodium Record in a Shallow Ice Core from East Antarctica as a Potential Proxy of the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent in Southern Indian Ocean

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Abstract

Antarctic sea ice has experienced an increasing trend in recent decades, especially in the Ross Sea and Indian Ocean sectors. Sea ice variability affects greatly the maritime airmass transport from high latitude to Antarctic continent. Here we present a new ice core record of sea salt sodium (ssNa+) concentration at annual-resolution in the Princess Elizabeth Land spanning from 1990 to 2016, showing that this marker could be used as a potential proxy for reconstructing the sea ice extent (SIE) in the Southern Indian Ocean (SIO) given their significant correlation (R = −0.6, P <0.01) over the past 27 years. The correlation and composite analyses results show that the ssNa+ at the 202 km inland from Zhongshan Station and the SIE changes in SIO are closely related to the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The northward wind in central SIO occurs during positive IOD and the strengthened westerlies occurs during positive SAM, both of which favor increased sea ice in SIO and lead to the decreased ssNa+ concentration at the coastal site.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA19070103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41425003, 41701071), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018 YFC1406100), and the CAS ‘Light of West China’ Program. Thanks are to logistics support of Mrs. Fuhai Wei, Xu Yao and Nan Zhang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Jiao Yang, Zhiheng Du & Cunde Xiao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Cunde Xiao

  3. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jiao Yang

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  1. Jiao Yang
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  2. Zhiheng Du
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Correspondence to Zhiheng Du.

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Yang, J., Du, Z. & Xiao, C. Sea Salt Sodium Record in a Shallow Ice Core from East Antarctica as a Potential Proxy of the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent in Southern Indian Ocean. J. Ocean Univ. China 18, 1351–1359 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-019-4084-2

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