Carbon isotope offsets between benthic foraminifer species of the genus Cibicides (Cibicidoides) in the glacial sub-Antarctic Atlantic

©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Epibenthic foraminifer δ 13 C measurements are valuable for reconstructing past bottom water dissolved inorganic carbon δ 13 C (δ 13 C DIC ), which are used to infer global ocean circulation patterns. Epibenthic δ 13 C, however, may also reflect the influence of 13 C-depleted phytodetritus, microhabitat changes, and/or variations in carbonate ion concentrations. Here we compare the δ 13 C of two benthic foraminifer species, Cibicides kullenbergi and Cibicides wuellerstorfi, and their morphotypes, in three sub-Antarctic Atlantic sediment cores over several glacial-interglacial transitions. These species are commonly assumed to be epibenthic, living above or directly below the sediment-water interface. While this might be consistent with the small δ 13 C offset that we observe between these species during late Pleistocene interglacial periods (Δδ 13 C = −0.19 ± 0.31‰, N = 63), it is more difficult to reconcile with the significant δ 13 C offset that is found between these species during glacial periods (Δδ 13 C = −0.76 ± 0.44‰, N = 44). We test possible scenarios by analyzing Uvigerina spp. δ 13 C and benthic foraminifer abundances: (1) C. kullenbergi δ 13 C is biased to light values either due to microhabitat shifts or phytodetritus effects and (2) C. wuellerstorfi δ 13 C is biased to heavy values, relative to long-term average conditions, for instance by recording the sporadic occurrence of less depleted deepwater δ 13 C DIC . Neither of these scenarios can be ruled out unequivocally. However, our findings emphasize that supposedly epibenthic foraminifer δ 13 C in the sub-Antarctic Atlantic may reflect several factors rather than being solely a function of bottom water δ 13 C DIC . This could have a direct bearing on the interpretation of extremely light South Atlantic δ 13 C values at the Last Glacial Maximum

Atlantic Ocean ventilation changes across the last deglaciation and their carbon cycle implications

Changes in ocean ventilation, controlled by both overturning rates and air‐sea gas exchange, are thought to have played a central role in atmospheric CO2 rise across the last deglaciation. Here we constrain the nature of Atlantic Ocean ventilation changes over the last deglaciation using radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes from two depth transects in the Atlantic basin. Our findings broadly cohere with the established pattern of deglacial Atlantic overturning change, and underline the existence of active northern sourced deep‐water export at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We find that the western Atlantic was less affected by incursions of southern‐sourced deep water, as compared to the eastern Atlantic, despite both sides of the basin being strongly influenced by the air‐sea equilibration of both northern‐ and southern deep‐water end‐members. Ventilation at least as strong as modern is observed throughout the Atlantic during the Bølling‐Allerød (BA), implying a ‘flushing’ of the entire Atlantic water column that we attribute to the combined effects of AMOC reinvigoration and increased air‐sea equilibration of southern sourced deep‐water. This ventilation ‘overshoot’ may have counteracted a natural atmospheric CO2 decline during interstadial conditions, helping to make the BA a ‘point of no return’ in the deglacial process. While the collected data emphasize a predominantly indirect AMOC contribution to deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise, via far field impacts on convection in the Southern Ocean and/or North Pacific during HS1 and the YD, the potential role of the AMOC in centennial CO2 pulses emerges as an important target for future work

Interglacials of the last 800,000 years

Interglacials, including the present (Holocene) period, are warm, low land ice extent (high sea level), end-members of glacial cycles. Based on a sea level definition, we identify eleven interglacials in the last 800,000 years, a result that is robust to alternative definitions. Data compilations suggest that despite spatial heterogeneity, Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e (last interglacial) and 11c (~400 ka ago) were globally strong (warm), while MIS 13a (~500 ka ago) was cool at many locations. A step change in strength of interglacials at 450 ka is apparent only in atmospheric CO$_{2}$ and in Antarctic and deep ocean temperature. The onset of an interglacial (glacial termination) seems to require a reducing precession parameter (increasing Northern Hemisphere summer insolation), but this condition alone is insufficient. Terminations involve rapid, nonlinear, reactions of ice volume, CO$_{2}$, and temperature to external astronomical forcing. The precise timing of events may be modulated by millennial-scale climate change that can lead to a contrasting timing of maximum interglacial intensity in each hemisphere. A variety of temporal trends is observed, such that maxima in the main records are observed either early or late in different interglacials. The end of an interglacial (glacial inception) is a slower process involving a global sequence of changes. Interglacials have been typically 10–30 ka long. The combination of minimal reduction in northern summer insolation over the next few orbital cycles, owing to low eccentricity, and high atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations implies that the next glacial inception is many tens of millennia in the future.This paper arose as a result of a succession of workshops of the Past Interglacials Group (PIGS), sponsored by the Past Global Changes Project (PAGES). The authors acknowledge the contributions of all participants at those workshops, of whom the listed authors are only a subset. Numerous funding agencies have contributed to the work of this paper including NSF (USA), NERC and The Royal Society (UK), F.R.S –FNRS (Belgium), and SNF (Switzerland). Most data described in this paper are available through relevant data repositories, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data and www.pangaea.de in particular. In addition, the datasets from which Tables 2 and 3 were derived have been compiled into a spreadsheet as a supplement to this paper. Insolation data for Figure 5 can be calculated using programs available at ftp://ftp.elic.ucl.ac.be/berger/berger78/ and ftp://ftp.elic.ucl.ac.be/berger/ellipticintegrals/.  This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015RG00048

Interglacials of the last 800,000 years

Interglacials, including the present (Holocene) period, are warm, low land ice extent (high sea level), end‐members of glacial cycles. Based on a sea level definition, we identify eleven interglacials in the last 800,000 years, a result that is robust to alternative definitions. Data compilations suggest that despite spatial heterogeneity, Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e (last interglacial) and 11c (~400 ka ago) were globally strong (warm), while MIS 13a (~500 ka ago) was cool at many locations. A step change in strength of interglacials at 450 ka is apparent only in atmospheric CO2 and in Antarctic and deep ocean temperature. The onset of an interglacial (glacial termination) seems to require a reducing precession parameter (increasing Northern Hemisphere summer insolation), but this condition alone is insufficient. Terminations involve rapid, nonlinear, reactions of ice volume, CO2, and temperature to external astronomical forcing. The precise timing of events may be modulated by millennial‐scale climate change that can lead to a contrasting timing of maximum interglacial intensity in each hemisphere. A variety of temporal trends is observed, such that maxima in the main records are observed either early or late in different interglacials. The end of an interglacial (glacial inception) is a slower process involving a global sequence of changes. Interglacials have been typically 10-30 ka long. The combination of minimal reduction in northern summer insolation over the next few orbital cycles, owing to low eccentricity, and high atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations implies that the next glacial inception is many tens of millennia in the future

Late Holocene paleoceanographic evidence of the influence of the Aleutian Low and North Pacific High on circulation in the Seymour-Belize Inlet Complex, British Columbia, Canada

Foraminiferal and thecamoebian faunas from the Seymour-BelizeInletComplex (SBIC), a fjord network situated on the mainland coast of BritishColumbia, were studied to assess climatic cycles and trends impacting the area through the ∼ AD 850–AD 2002 interval. Ocean circulation patterns prevalent in the SBIC are strongly linked to precipitation, which is closely linked to the relative strength and position (center of action; COA) of the seasonally developed AleutianLow (AL) and NorthPacificHigh (NPH) atmospheric circulation gyres

Atlantic ocean ventilation changes across the last deglaciation and their carbon cycle implications

International audienceChanges in ocean ventilation, controlled by both overturning rates and air‐sea gas exchange, are thought to have played a central role in atmospheric CO2 rise across the last deglaciation. Here, we constrain the nature of Atlantic Ocean ventilation changes over the last deglaciation using radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes from two depth transects in the Atlantic basin. Our findings broadly cohere with the established pattern of deglacial Atlantic overturning change, and underline the existence of active northern sourced deep‐water export at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We find that the western Atlantic was less affected by incursions of southern‐sourced deep water, as compared to the eastern Atlantic, despite both sides of the basin being strongly influenced by the air‐sea equilibration of both northern and southern deep‐water end‐members. Ventilation at least as strong as modern is observed throughout the Atlantic during the Bølling‐Allerød (BA), implying a “flushing” of the entire Atlantic water column that we attribute to the combined effects of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) reinvigoration and increased air‐sea equilibration of southern sourced deep‐water. This ventilation “overshoot” may have counteracted a natural atmospheric CO2 decline during interstadial conditions, helping to make the BA a “point of no return” in the deglacial process. While the collected data emphasize a predominantly indirect AMOC contribution to deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise, via far field impacts on convection in the Southern Ocean and/or North Pacific during Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Younger Dryas, the potential role of the AMOC in centennial CO2 pulses emerges as an important target for future work

Age and duration of Laschamp and Iceland Basin geomagnetic excursions in the South Atlantic Ocean

Age models for new records of the Laschamp and Iceland Basin excursions from the eastern flank of the South Atlantic mid-ocean ridge (44.15°S, 14.22°W) are derived from radiocarbon dates, and from matching sea-surface temperature records to Antarctic (EPICA) air-temperature records from ice cores. The onset of the Laschamp excursion occurred during Antarctic Isotopic Maximum (AIM) 10, consistent with its occurrence during Greenland Interstadial 10. The end of the Laschamp excursion occurred prior to AIM 9 in Greenland Stadial 10. The age model is supported by synchroneity of directional and relative paleointensity manifestations of the Laschamp excursion in the marine core with peaks in EPICA 10 Be and nitrate flux. The Iceland Basin excursion is synchronous with the final phase of the transition from marine isotope stage (MIS) 7a to MIS 6e as recorded in the EPICA δD record. The onset of the Laschamp and Iceland Basin excursions, defined here by component inclinations > −40°, occurred at 41.4 ka and 190.0 ka, and durations are ∼1 kyr and ∼3.5 kyr, respectively, although these estimates depend on the criteria used to define the directional excursions. By comparison with Laschamp and Iceland Basin excursion records from the North Atlantic Ocean, the two excursions are synchronous at centennial timescales between the two hemispheres, based on synchronization of the GICC05 and AICC2012 age models for Greenland and Antarctic ice cores

Relative timing of precipitation and ocean circulation changes in the western equatorial Atlantic over the last 45 kyr

International audienceThanks to its optimal location on the northern Brazilian margin, core MD09-3257 records both ocean circulation and atmospheric changes. The latter occur locally in the form of increased rainfall on the adjacent continent during the cold intervals recorded in Greenland ice and northern North Atlantic sediment cores (i.e., Greenland stadi-als). These rainfall events are recorded in MD09-3257 as peaks in ln(Ti / Ca). New sedimentary Pa / Th data indicate that mid-depth western equatorial water mass transport decreased during all of the Greenland stadials of the last 40 kyr. Using cross-wavelet transforms and spectrogram analysis, we assess the relative phase between the MD09-3257 sed-imentary Pa / Th and ln(Ti / Ca) signals. We show that decreased water mass transport between a depth of ∼ 1300 and 2300 m in the western equatorial Atlantic preceded increased rainfall over the adjacent continent by 120 to 400 yr at Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) frequencies, and by 280 to 980 yr at Heinrich-like frequencies. We suggest that the large lead of ocean circulation changes with respect to changes in tropical South American precipitation at Heinrich-like frequencies is related to the effect of a positive feedback involving iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic. In contrast, the absence of widespread ice rafted detrital layers in North Atlantic cores during DO stadials supports the hypothesis that a feedback such as this was not triggered in the case of DO stadials, with circulation slowdowns and subsequent changes remaining more limited during DO stadials than Heinrich stadials