Holocene evolution of summer winds and marine productivity in the tropical Indian Ocean in response to insolation forcing: data-model comparison

The relative abundance of <i>Globigerinoides bulloides</i> was used to infer Holocene paleo-productivity changes on the Oman margin and at the southern tip of India. Today, the primary productivity at both sites reaches its maximum during the summer season, when monsoon winds result in local Eckman pumping, which brings more nutrients to the surface. On a millennium time-scale, however, the % <i>G. bulloides</i> records indicate an opposite evolution of paleo-productivity at these sites through the Holocene. The Oman Margin productivity was maximal at ~9 ka (boreal summer insolation maximum) and has decreased since then, suggesting a direct response to insolation forcing. On the contrary, the productivity at the southern tip of India was minimum at ~9 ka, and strengthened towards the present. <br><br> Paleo-reconstructions of wind patterns, marine productivity and foraminifera assemblages were obtained using the IPSL-CM4 climate model coupled to the PISCES marine biogeochemical model and the FORAMCLIM ecophysiological model. These reconstructions are fully coherent with the marine core data. They confirm that the evolution of particulate export production and foraminifera assemblages at our two sites were directly linked with the strength of the upwelling. Model simulations at 9 ka and 6 ka BP show that the relative evolution between the two sites since the early Holocene can be explained by the weakening but also the southward shift of monsoon winds over the Arabian Sea during boreal summer

Modern and glacial tropical snowlines controlled by sea surface temperature and atmospheric mixing

International audienceDuring the Last Glacial Maximum, tropical sea surface temperatures were 1 to 3 degrees C cooler than present(1-4), but the altitude of the snowlines of tropical glaciers(5,6) was lower than would be expected in light of these sea surface temperatures. Indeed, both glacial and twentieth-century snowlines seem to require lapse rates that are steeper than a moist adiabat(7,8). Here we use estimates of Last Glacial Maximum sea surface temperature in the Indo-Pacific warm pool based on the clumped isotope palaeotemperature proxy in planktonic foraminifera and coccoliths, along with radiative-convective calculations of vertical atmospheric thermal structure, to assess the controls on tropical glacier snowlines. Using extensive new data sets for the region, we demonstrate that mean environmental lapse rates are steeper than moist adiabatic during the recent and glacial. We reconstruct glacial sea surface temperatures 4 to 5 degrees C cooler than modern. We include modern and glacial sea surface temperatures in calculations of atmospheric convection that account for mixing between rising air and ambient air, and derive tropical glacier snowlines with altitudes consistent with twentieth-century and Last Glacial Maximum reconstructions. Sea surface temperature changes <= 3 degrees C are excluded unless glacial relative humidity values were outside the range associated with deep convection in the modern. We conclude that the entrainment of ambient air into rising air masses significantly alters the vertical temperature structure of the troposphere in modern and ancient regions of deep convection. Furthermore, if all glacial tropical temperatures were cooler than previously estimated, it would imply a higher equilibrium climate sensitivity than included in present models(9,10)

Climate and the Evolution of the Ocean: The Paleoceanographic Data

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