The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), Earth's most critical climate heat distributor, may slow down sooner than previously expected. Although similar scenarios have occurred in the past, their expressions remain understudied.
The transition from the Last Glacial period into the Holocene was punctuated by a series of abrupt cooling events, linked to AMOC slowdown, such as the Younger Dryas, Heinrich-1, and the 8.2 ka event. These provide ground-truth evidence on the regional impacts on ecosystems and regional weather patterns. Understanding the mechanics, regional extent, and temporal progression of such events can inform us about how future AMOC-slowdown scenarios may play out.
We encourage contributions combining multi-proxy records (ice cores, lacustrine and marine sediments, and speleothems), regional syntheses, numerical modeling, and proxy–model comparisons, in particular, on the Younger Dryas period. We aim to integrate discussions of the interconnected mechanisms linking (hydro)climatic changes to disruptions in atmospheric and ocean circulation. Responses to the impacts of large-scale processes on regional (hydro)climatic and environmental expressions across regions, building a broader picture and highlighting spatio-temporal disparities. Thereby, exploring new avenues that go beyond the ‘classical’ AMOC weakening/strengthening conversation.