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Originally published in Science Express on 15 November 2001
Science 7 December 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5549, pp. 2130 - 2136
DOI: 10.1126/science.1065680
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Research Articles

Persistent Solar Influence on North Atlantic Climate During the Holocene

Gerard Bond,1* Bernd Kromer,2 Juerg Beer,3 Raimund Muscheler,3 Michael N. Evans,4 William Showers,5 Sharon Hoffmann,1 Rusty Lotti-Bond,1 Irka Hajdas,6 Georges Bonani6

Surface winds and surface ocean hydrography in the subpolar North Atlantic appear to have been influenced by variations in solar output through the entire Holocene. The evidence comes from a close correlation between inferred changes in production rates of the cosmogenic nuclides carbon-14 and beryllium-10 and centennial to millennial time scale changes in proxies of drift ice measured in deep-sea sediment cores. A solar forcing mechanism therefore may underlie at least the Holocene segment of the North Atlantic's "1500-year" cycle. The surface hydrographic changes may have affected production of North Atlantic Deep Water, potentially providing an additional mechanism for amplifying the solar signals and transmitting them globally.

1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
2 Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Institute of Environmental Physics, INF 229, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
3 Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasswerreinigung und Gewuässerschutz, Ueberlandstrasse 133, Postfach 611, CH-8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland.
4 Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, 105 West Stadium, Tucson, AZ 8572, USA.
5 Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, 1125 Jordan Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695-8208, USA.
6 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
14 C Lab, ITP Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hoenggerberg, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gcb{at}ldeo.columbia.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)