231Pa/230Th evidence for a weakened but persistent Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during Heinrich Stadial 1

The strength of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is believed to affect the climate over glacial-interglacial and millennial timescales. The marine sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratio is a promising paleocirculation proxy, but local particle effects may bias individual reconstructions. Here we present new Atlantic sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th data from the Holocene, the last glacial maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1, a period of abrupt cooling ca. 17,500 years ago. We combine our results with published data from these intervals to create a spatially distributed sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th database. The data reveal a net ²³¹Pa deficit during each period, consistent with persistent ²³¹Pa export. In highly resolved cores, Heinrich ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratios exceed glacial ratios at nearly all depths, indicating a significant reduction, although not cessation, of overturning during Heinrich Stadial 1. These results support the inference that weakened overturning was a driver of Heinrich cooling, while suggesting that abrupt climate oscillations do not necessarily require a complete shutdown of overturning

Oceanographic dynamics and the end of the last interglacial in the subpolar North Atlantic

The last interglacial interval was terminated by the inception of a long, progressive glaciation that is attributed to astronomically influenced changes in the seasonal distribution of sunlight over the earth. However, the feedbacks, internal dynamics, and global teleconnections associated with declining northern summer insolation remain incompletely understood. Here we show that a crucial early step in glacial inception involves the weakening of the subpolar gyre (SPG) circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean. Detailed new records of microfossil foraminifera abundance and stable isotope ratios in deep sea sediments from Ocean Drilling Program site 984 south of Iceland reveal repeated, progressive cold water-mass expansions into subpolar latitudes during the last peak interglacial interval, marine isotope substage 5e. These movements are expressed as a sequence of progressively extensive southward advances and subsequent retreats of a hydrographic boundary that may have been analogous to the modern Arctic front, and associated with rapid changes in the strength of the SPG. This persistent millennial-scale oceanographic oscillation accompanied a long-term cooling trend at a time of slowly declining northern summer insolation, providing an early link in the propagation of those insolation changes globally, and resulting in a rapid transition from extensive regional warmth to the dramatic instability of the subsequent ∼100 ka

What do benthic δ13C and δ18O data tell us about Atlantic circulation during Heinrich Stadial 1?

Approximately synchronous with the onset of Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), δ13C decreased throughout most of the upper (~1000–2500 m) Atlantic, and at some deeper North Atlantic sites. This early deglacial δ13C decrease has been alternatively attributed to a reduced fraction of high-δ13C North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) or to a decrease in the NADW δ13C source value. Here we present new benthic δ18O and δ13C records from three relatively shallow (~1450–1650 m) subpolar Northeast Atlantic cores. With published data from other cores, these data form a depth transect (~1200–3900 m) in the subpolar Northeast Atlantic. We compare Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and HS1 data from this transect with data from a depth transect of cores from the Brazil Margin. The largest LGM-to-HS1 decreases in both benthic δ13C and δ18O occurred in upper waters containing the highest NADW fraction during the LGM. We show that the δ13C decrease can be explained entirely by a lower NADW δ13C source value, entirely by a decrease in the proportion of NADW relative to Southern Ocean Water, or by a combination of these mechanisms. However, building on insights from model simulations, we hypothesize that reduced ventilation due to a weakened but still active Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation also contributed to the low δ13C values in the upper North Atlantic. We suggest that the benthic δ18O gradients above ~2300 m at both core transects indicate the depth to which heat and North Atlantic deglacial freshwater had mixed into the subsurface ocean by early HS1

Authigenic uranium deposition in the glacial North Atlantic: Implications for changes in oxygenation, carbon storage, and deep water-mass geometry

Oxygen in the ocean has essential ecological and climatic functions, and can be an important indicator of deep-ocean ventilation and carbon storage. Previous studies are divided on whether the subsurface North Atlantic, which today is well-oxygenated, had higher or lower oxygen levels during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Crucially, the limited number of previous reconstructions precludes any conclusions regarding basin-wide patterns in past changes in oxygenation. Authigenic uranium in deep-sea sediments is a sensitive redox tracer that can shed light on bottom water oxygen. Here, we leverage published and new U- and Th-series isotope measurements from North Atlantic sediments to calculate the mass accumulation rate of authigenic uranium (aU MAR) during the Holocene and the LGM. We find that greater aU burial, reflecting lower-than-Holocene oxygen levels and correspondingly greater respired carbon storage, were persistent features of the LGM in the deep North Atlantic. The eastern basin was substantially less well-oxygenated than the western basin. This zonal contrast is possibly related to the farther advance and greater infilling to the east of the mid-Atlantic Ridge of deep waters originating from the Southern Ocean. An alternative explanation is the different residence time in the two basins of deep waters originating from the subpolar North Atlantic. Previous compilations of two nutrient tracers, δ¹³C and Cd_W, are consistent with the varying-deep-circulation interpretation of our aU MAR dataset. The observed threshold behavior of aU or the pattern of export productivity, especially at high latitudes, may also have enhanced this west-east difference

Large deglacial shifts of the Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone

The position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is sensitive to changes in the balance of heat between the hemispheres which has fundamental implications for tropical hydrology and atmospheric circulation. Although the ITCZ is thought to experience the largest shifts in position during deglacial stadial events, the magnitude of shifts has proven difficult to reconstruct, in part because of a paucity of high-resolution records, particularly those including spatial components. Here we track the position of the ITCZ from 150 to 110 ka at three sites in the central equatorial Pacific at sub-millennial time resolution. Our results provide evidence of large, abrupt changes in tropical climate during the penultimate deglaciation, coincident with North Atlantic Heinrich Stadial 11 (~136–129 ka). We identify this event both as a Northern Hemisphere increase in aeolian dust and as a shift in the mean position of the ITCZ a minimum of 4° southwards at 160° W

Strengthening of the Northeast Monsoon over the Flores Sea, Indonesia, at the time of Heinrich event 1

Paleoclimate evidence from South America and Asia has been interpreted to indicate that tropical rainfall migrated southward during the Northern Hemisphere cooling associated with Heinrich stadial 1 (HS1), an event of massive iceberg discharge to the North Atlantic ca. 18–15 ka. Although arid conditions associated with such a shift are well documented in southern Asia, as far south as Borneo, debate still exists regarding the precipitation response in southern Indonesia and Australia during HS1. This study utilizes concentrations of the long-lived nuclide 232Th as a proxy for detrital riverine input and 230Th normalization to estimate the history of preserved fluxes reaching the seafloor in the Flores Sea, located between southern Sulawesi and the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. Because the only source of 232Th to the ocean is continental minerals, this proxy is a robust indicator of continental weathering. The 230Th normalized burial fluxes of lithogenic and biogenic matter demonstrate that both detrital and biogenic fluxes in the Flores Sea were higher during HS1 than any other period in the past 22 k.y. High detrital fluxes indicate enhanced precipitation runoff from surrounding landmasses during a period of maximum southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. This study further constrains the northern limit of enhanced rainfall associated with a southward shift of Australian monsoon-related rainfall at the time of HS1 and highlights the value of 232Th as a proxy of continental input to deep-sea sediment records

Silicon isotopes indicate enhanced carbon export efficiency in the North Atlantic during deglaciation

Today’s Sargasso Sea is nutrient starved, except for episodic upwelling events caused by wind-driven winter mixing and eddies. Enhanced diatom opal burial in Sargasso Sea sediments indicates that silicic acid, a limiting nutrient today, may have been more available in subsurface waters during Heinrich Stadials, millennial-scale climate perturbations of the last glacial and deglaciation. Here we use the geochemistry of opal-forming organisms from different water depths to demonstrate changes in silicic acid supply and utilization during the most recent Heinrich Stadial. We suggest that during the early phase (17.5–18 ka), wind-driven upwelling replenished silicic acid to the subsurface, resulting in low Si utilization. By 17 ka, stratification reduced the surface silicic acid supply leading to increased Si utilization efficiency. This abrupt shift in Si cycling would have contributed to high regional carbon export efficiency during the recent Heinrich Stadial, despite being a period of increasing atmospheric CO2

Synchronous Deglacial Overturning and Water Mass Source Changes

Understanding changes in ocean circulation during the last deglaciation is crucial to unraveling the dynamics of glacial-interglacial and millennial climate shifts. We used neodymium isotope measurements on postdepositional iron-manganese oxide coatings precipitated on planktonic foraminifera to reconstruct changes in the bottom water source of the deep western North Atlantic at the Bermuda Rise. Comparison of our deep water source record with overturning strength proxies shows that both the deep water mass source and the overturning rate shifted rapidly and synchronously during the last deglacial transition. In contrast, any freshwater perturbation caused by Heinrich event 1 could have only affected shallow overturning. These findings show how changes in upper-ocean overturning associated with millennial-scale events differ from those associated with whole-ocean deglacial climate events

Climate stability during the Pliocene warm period

We present a high-resolution climate record from a sediment core spanning an 80-kyr interval of time during the mid-Pliocene epoch, when warmer conditions and lower global ice volume prevailed worldwide. Oxygen and carbon isotope analyses were made on benthic and planktonic foraminifera from ODP Site 981 in the North Atlantic. The amplitude and approximate recurrence interval of suborbital variations in these records are comparable to those of Holocene and marine isotope stage 11 (MIS 11) records from the North Atlantic. We conclude that the mid-Pliocene warm interval was a time of relative climatic stability. These results suggest that warmer climatic conditions alone may not necessarily enhance variability in the climate system, a finding that may facilitate predictions of 21st century climatic response to anthropogenic warming

Advection and scavenging controls of Pa/Th in the northern NE Atlantic

Over the last 2 decades, significant advances have been made in reconstructing past rates of ocean circulation using sedimentary proxies for the dynamics of abyssal waters. In this study we combine the use of two rate proxies, sortable silt grain size, and sedimentary ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th, measured on a depth transect of deep-sea sediment cores from the northern NE Atlantic, to investigate ocean circulation changes during the last deglacial. We find that at two deep sites, the core-top ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th ratios reflect Holocene circulation rates, while during Heinrich Stadial 1, the deglacial ratios peaked as the sortable silt grain size decreased, reflecting a general circulation slowdown. However, the peak ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th significantly exceeded the production ratio in both cores, indicating that ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th was only partially controlled by ocean circulation at these sites. This is supported by a record of ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th from an intermediate water depth site, where values also peaked during Heinrich Stadial 1, but were consistently above the production ratio over the last 24 ka, reflecting high scavenging below productive surface waters. At our study sites, we find that preserved sediment component fluxes cannot be used to distinguish between a scavenging or circulation control, although they are consistent with a circulation influence, since the core at intermediate depth with the highest ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th recorded the lowest particle fluxes. Reconstruction of advection rate using ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th in this region is complicated by high productivity, but the data nevertheless contain important information on past deep ocean circulation