Florian Adolphi (Bremerhaven): Cosmic Links between Climate Archives – Using cosmogenic radionuclides to constrain paleoclimate dynamics

Precise chronologies are the cornerstone of most paleosciences. They are a prerequisite for studying the couplings and feedbacks within the climate system and understanding its dynamics in the past. Yet, different dating methods yield partly inconsistent results and it remains a major challenge to consistently date different climate archives at the required precision and accuracy.
Cosmogenic radionuclides such as ¹⁰Be and ¹⁴C provide a tool to overcome these challenges: Their atmospheric production rates are controlled by the flux of cosmic rays, which in turn is modulated by changes in the helio- and geomagnetic field strength. The resulting variations of cosmogenic radionuclide production rates can be reconstructed globally from tree-rings and speleothems (¹⁴C) as well as ice cores and sediments (¹⁰Be), allowing us to tightly synchronize these records and provide new insights into paleoclimate dynamics.
In this talk, I will present applications of this methodology to elucidate on the propagation of climate changes between low- and high-latitudes in the past. Further, I will show examples of how we can use cosmogenic radionuclides to date sediments from the Arctic Ocean and provide insights into its glacial history.