The Northern North Atlantic

The northern North Atlantic is one of the regions most sensitive to past and present global changes. This book integrates the results of an interdisciplinary project studying the properties of the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas and the processes of pelagic and benthic particle formation, particle transport, and deposition in the deep-sea sediments. Ice-related and biogeochemical processes have been investigated to decipher the spatial and temporal variability of the production and fate of organic carbon in this region. Isotopic stratigraphy, microfossil assemblages and paleotemperatures are combined to reconstruct paleoceanographic conditions and to model past climatic changes in the Late Quaternary. The Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas can now be considered one of the best studied subbasins of the world`s oceans.

Compilation of most recent original data

The Environment of the Northern North Atlantic Ocean.- Sea-Ice Conditions in the Greenland Sea.- Constraints on Carbon Drawdown.- Particle Flux Variability.- Biogenic Particle Sources.- Distribution, Export and Alteration of Fossilizable Plankton.- Modern Ocean Current-Controlled Sediment Transport.- Near-Bottom Sediment Transport.- Distribution and Structure of Benthic Faunal Assemblages.- Exchange Processes across the Sediment Water Interface.- Bentho-Pelagic Coupling and Carbon Dynamics.- Fluxes of Organic Carbon and Biogenic Silica.- Microbial Decomposition of Organic Material.- Changes in the Hydrate Stability Zone.- Climate Change and Paleoceanography.- The Potential of Synoptic Plankton Analyses for Paleoclimatic Investigations.- Paleoceanographic Proxies.- The Use of Biomarker Proxies for the Reconstruction of Paleoceanographic Conditions.- Past Ocean Changes.- Dansgaard-Oeschger Oscillations.- Circulation of the Glacial Atlantic.