566 research outputs found

    Technical note: PaleoDataView – a software toolbox for the collection, homogenization and visualization of marine proxy data

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    We present a software toolbox that allows the efficient collection, management and maintenance of larger paleoceanographic data sets. The program combines a graphical user interface (GUI) with a simple document-based database and functionality for visualization, stratigraphy (visual alignment and radiocarbon calibration), age modelling and efficient ensemble time-series generation to create larger homogenous data compilations. Data can be imported from Excel or text files, are stored locally in netCDF format and can be easily exchanged between collaborating scientists. Within a data collection, data can be imported either to proxy-specific sub-collections or to a multi-proxy (“miscellaneous”) sub-collection that allows the import and management of any downcore data. A single age model is shared among all proxies of a core within a collection. The stand-alone software can be used with Windows and macOS and does not require web access. Installers of the current version for both Windows 10 and macOS including the C++ code can be downloaded from https://www.marum.de/Stefan-Mulitza/PaleoDataView.html (last access: 5 December 2019) along with a detailed user guide

    No detectable influence of the carbonate ion effect on changes in stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of shallow dwelling planktic foraminifera over the past 160 kyr

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    Laboratory experiments showed that the isotopic fractionation of δ13C and of δ18O during calcite formation of planktic foraminifera are species-specific functions of ambient CO32- concentration. This effect became known as the carbonate ion effect (CIE), whose role for the interpretation of marine sediment data will be investigated here in an in-depth analysis of the 13C cycle. For this investigation, we constructed new 160 kyr long mono-specific stacks of changes in both δ13C and δ18O from either the planktic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (rub) or Trilobatus sacculifer (sac) from 112 and 40 marine records, respectively, from the wider tropics (latitudes below 38°). Both mono-specific time series Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) are very similar to each other, and a linear regression through a scatter plot of both data sets has a slope of ∼ 0.99 – although the laboratory-based CIE for both species differs by a factor of nearly 2, implying that they should record distinctly different changes in δ13C, if we accept that the carbonate ion concentration changes on glacial–interglacial timescales. For a deeper understanding of the 13C cycle, we use the Solid Earth version of the Box model of the Isotopic Carbon cYCLE (BICYLE-SE) to calculate how surface-ocean CO32- should have varied over time in order to be able to calculate the potential offsets which would by caused by the CIE quantified in culture experiments. Our simulations are forced with atmospheric reconstructions of CO2 and δ13CO2 derived from ice cores to obtain a carbon cycle which should at least at the surface ocean be as close as possible to expected conditions and which in the deep ocean largely agrees with the carbon isotope ratio of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), δ13CDIC, as reconstructed from benthic foraminifera. We find that both Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) agree better with changes in simulated δ13CDIC when ignoring the CIE than those time series which were corrected for the CIE. The combination of data- and model-based evidence for the lack of a role for the CIE in Δ(δ13Crub) and Δ(δ13Csac) suggests that the CIE as measured in laboratory experiments is not directly transferable to the interpretation of marine sediment records. The much smaller CIE-to-glacial–interglacial-signal ratio in foraminifera δ18O, when compared to δ13C, prevents us from drawing robust conclusions on the role of the CIE in δ18O as recorded in the hard shells of both species. However, theories propose that the CIE in both δ13C and δ18O depends on the pH in the surrounding water, suggesting that the CIE should be detectable in neither or both of the isotopes. Whether this lack of role of the CIE in the interpretation of planktic paleo-data is a general feature or is restricted to the two species investigated here needs to be checked with further data from other planktic foraminiferal species

    A global climatology of the ocean surface during the Last Glacial Maximum mapped on a regular grid (GLOMAP)

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    We present a climatology of the near-sea-surface temperature (NSST) anomaly and the sea-ice extent during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 23 000–19 000 years before present) mapped on a global regular 1∘×1∘ grid. It is an extension of the Glacial Atlantic Ocean Mapping (GLAMAP) reconstruction of the Atlantic NSST based on the faunal and floral assemblage data of the Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean Surface (MARGO) project and several recent estimates of the LGM sea-ice extent. Such a gridded climatology is highly useful for the visualization of the LGM climate, calculation of global and regional NSST averages, and estimation of the equilibrium climate sensitivity, as well as a boundary condition for atmospheric general circulation models. The gridding of the sparse NSST reconstruction was done in an optimal way using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) software, which takes into account the uncertainty in the reconstruction and includes the calculation of an error field. The resulting Glacial Ocean Map (GLOMAP) confirms the previous findings by the MARGO project regarding longitudinal and meridional NSST differences that were greater than today in all oceans. Taken at face value, the estimated global and tropical cooling would imply an equilibrium climate sensitivity at the lower end of the currently accepted range. However, because of anticipated changes in the seasonality and thermal structure of the upper ocean during the LGM as well as uneven spatial sampling, the estimated cooling and implied climate sensitivity are likely to be biased towards lower values

    North Atlantic Deep Water Production during the Last Glacial Maximum.

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    Changes in deep ocean ventilation are commonly invoked as the primary cause of lower glacial atmospheric CO2. The water mass structure of the glacial deep Atlantic Ocean and the mechanism by which it may have sequestered carbon remain elusive. Here we present neodymium isotope measurements from cores throughout the Atlantic that reveal glacial-interglacial changes in water mass distributions. These results demonstrate the sustained production of North Atlantic Deep Water under glacial conditions, indicating that southern-sourced waters were not as spatially extensive during the Last Glacial Maximum as previously believed. We demonstrate that the depleted glacial δ(13)C values in the deep Atlantic Ocean cannot be explained solely by water mass source changes. A greater amount of respired carbon, therefore, must have been stored in the abyssal Atlantic during the Last Glacial Maximum. We infer that this was achieved by a sluggish deep overturning cell, comprised of well-mixed northern- and southern-sourced waters.Sample material was provided by the Godwin Laboratory for Paleoclimate Research at the University of Cambridge, the International Ocean Discovery Program, the GeoB Core Repository at the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen and Petrobras. Jo Kerr and Aurora Elmore are thanked for providing additional samples. The data reported in this paper are listed in supplementary information and archived in Pangaea (www.pangaea.de). Thiago Pereira dos Santos is thanked for providing the unpublished age model data for GL1090; Jo Clegg and Vicky Rennie are thanked for technical support and Natalie Roberts for helpful discussions. Radiocarbon analyses were supported by NERC radiocarbon grant 1752.1013 and Nd isotope analyses by NERC grant NERC NE/K005235/1 and NERC NE/F006047/1 to AMP. JNWH was supported by a Rutherford Memorial Scholarship. SM was funded through the DFG Research Center/Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System”. CMC acknowledges financial support from FAPESP (Grant 2012/17517-3).This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Nature Publishing Group

    Terrigenous input off northern South America driven by changes in Amazonian climate and the North Brazil Current retroflection during the last 250 ka

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    We investigate changes in the delivery and oceanic transport of Amazon sediments related to terrestrial climate variations over the last 250 ka. We present high-resolution geochemical records from four marine sediment cores located between 5 and 12° N a

    Muted change in Atlantic overturning circulation over some glacial-aged Heinrich events

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    Heinrich events—surges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean—punctuated the last glacial period. The events are associated with millennial-scale cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Fresh water from the melting icebergs is thought to have interrupted the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, thus minimizing heat transport into the northern North Atlantic. The northward flow of warm water passes through the Florida Straits and is reflected in the distribution of seawater properties in this region. Here we investigate the northward flow through this region over the past 40,000 years using oxygen isotope measurements of benthic foraminifera from two cores on either side of the Florida Straits. These measurements allow us to estimate water density, which is related to flow through the thermal wind balance. We infer a substantial reduction of flow during Heinrich Event 1 and the Younger Dryas cooling, but little change during Heinrich Events 2 and 3, which occurred during an especially cold phase of the last glacial period. We speculate that because glacial circulation was already weakened before the onset of Heinrich Events 2 and 3, freshwater forcing had little additional effect. However, low-latitude climate perturbations were observed during all events. We therefore suggest that these perturbations may not have been directly caused by changes in heat transport associated with Atlantic overturning circulation as commonly assumed

    Antarctic intermediate water circulation in the South Atlantic over the past 25,000 years

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    Antarctic Intermediate Water is an essential limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation that redistributes heat and nutrients within the Atlantic Ocean. Existing reconstructions have yielded conflicting results on the history of Antarctic Intermediate Water penetration into the Atlantic across the most recent glacial termination. In this study we present leachate, foraminiferal, and detrital neodymium isotope data from three intermediate-depth cores collected from the southern Brazil margin in the South Atlantic covering the past 25 kyr. These results reveal that strong chemical leaching following decarbonation does not extract past seawater neodymium composition in this location. The new foraminiferal records reveal no changes in seawater Nd isotopes during abrupt Northern Hemisphere cold events at these sites. We therefore conclude that there is no evidence for greater incursion of Antarctic Intermediate Water into the South Atlantic during either the Younger Dryas or Heinrich Stadial 1. We do, however, observe more radiogenic Nd isotope values in the intermediate-depth South Atlantic during the mid-Holocene. This radiogenic excursion coincides with evidence for a southward shift in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies that may have resulted in a greater entrainment of radiogenic Pacific-sourced water during intermediate water production in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Our intermediate-depth records show similar values to a deglacial foraminiferal Nd isotope record from the deep South Atlantic during the Younger Dryas but are clearly distinct during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1, demonstrating that the South Atlantic remained chemically stratified during Heinrich Stadial 1
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