Present and Past Mineral Dust Variations- a Cross-Disciplinary Challenge for Research

In its recently published report, the intergovernmental Panel Climate Change identified the role of mineral dust in the Earth system and the uncertainties it introduces to the total aerosol radiative forcing and climate projections as key topics for future research. Achieving a thorough understanding of feedback associated with eolian dust is a challenge for a number of Earth science disciplines as mineral dust processes operate on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. On the other hand, studies of mineral dust contribute significantly to research on past climatic and environment conditions enabled by dust preserved in different kinds of depositional paleoclimate archives.Such work has been the focus of PAGES' recently concluded ADOM (Atmospheric Dust during the last glacial cycle: Observations and Modeling) working, which was established in 2008 with the goal of combining reconstructions of climate and atmospheric circulation from terrestrial, marine and ice-core records with modern dust evidence and model simulations of past and present atmospheric circulation

Late Holocene forcing of the Asian winter and summer monsoon as evidenced by proxy records from the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Little is known about decadal- to centennial-scale climate variability and its associated forcing mechanisms on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. A decadal-resolution record of total organic carbon (TOC) and grainsize retrieved from a composite piston core from Kusai Lake, NW China, provides solid evidence for decadal- to centennial-scale Asian monsoon variability for the Northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during the last 3770 yr. Intensified winter and summer monsoons are well correlated with respective reductions and increases in solar irradiance. A number of intensified Asian winter monsoon phases are potentially correlated with North Atlantic climatic variations including Bond events 0 to 2 and more recent subtle climate changes from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age. Our findings indicate that Asian monsoon changes during the late Holocene are forced by changes in both solar output and oceanic-atmospheric circulation patterns. Our results demonstrate that these forcing mechanisms operate not only in low latitudes but also in mid-latitude regions (the Northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau)

The interplay between the surface and bottom water environment within the Benguela Upwelling System over the last 70 ka

The Benguela Upwelling System (BUS), located between 30 and 20°S, is one of the fundamentalhigh-productivity systems of the world ocean. The BUS has previously been studied in terms of primaryproductivity and ecology over glacial-interglacial timescales; however, the response and coupling with thebenthic environment have received little attention. Here, for the ?rst time, we present a high-resolutionreconstruction of the BUS highlighting the link between surface and benthic productivity and their responseto climatic and oceanographic changes over the last 70 ka. The study is based on benthic foraminiferal faunalanalysis together with analyses of diatom assemblages, grain size of the terrigenous fraction, and stable Oand C isotopic and bulk biogenic components of core GeoB3606-1. We reveal signi?cant shifts in benthicforaminiferal assemblage composition. Tight coupling existed between the surface and bottom waterenvironment especially throughout marine isotope stages 4 and 3 (MIS4 and MIS3). Due to the high exportproduction, the site has essentially experienced continuous low oxygen conditions; however, there are timeperiods where the hypoxic conditions were even more notable. Two of these severe hypoxic periods wereduring parts of MIS4 and MIS3 where we ?nd an inverse relationship between diatom and benthicforaminifera accumulation, meaning that during times of extremely high phytodetritus export we notestrongly suppressed benthic productivity. We also stress the importance of food source for the benthosthroughout the record. Shifts in export productivity are attributed not only to upwelling intensity and?lament front position, but also, regional-global climatic and oceanographic changes had signi?cant impacton the BUS dynamics

Coccolithophore fluxes in the open tropical North Atlantic: influence of thermocline depth, Amazon water, and Saharan dust

Coccolithophores are calcifying phytoplankton and major contributors to both the organic and inorganic oceanic carbon pumps. Their export fluxes, species composition, and seasonal patterns were determined in two sediment trap moorings (M4 at 12 degrees N, 49 degrees W and M2 at 14 degrees N, 37 degrees W) collecting settling particles synchronously from October 2012 to November 2013 at 1200 m of water depth in the open equatorial North Atlantic. The two trap locations showed a similar seasonal pattern in total coccolith export fluxes and a predominantly tropical coccolithophore settling assemblage. Species fluxes were dominated throughout the year by lower photic zone (LPZ) taxa (Florisphaera profunda, Gladiolithus flabellatus) but also included upper photic zone (UPZ) taxa (Umbellosphaera spp., Rhabdosphaera spp., Umbilicosphaera spp., Helicosphaera spp.). The LPZ flora was most abundant during fall 2012, whereas the UPZ flora was more important during summer. In spite of these similarities, the western part of the study area produced persistently higher fluxes, averaging 241 x 10(7) +/- 76 x 10(7) coccoliths m(-2) d(-1) at station M4 compared to only 66 x 10(7) +/- 31 x 10(7) coccoliths m(-2) d(-1) at station M2. Higher fluxes at M4 were mainly produced by the LPZ species, favoured by the westward deepening of the thermocline and nutricline. Still, most UPZ species also contributed to higher fluxes, reflecting enhanced productivity in the western equatorial North Atlantic. Such was the case of two marked flux peaks of the more opportunistic species Gephyrocapsa muellerae and Emiliania huxleyi in January and April 2013 at M4, indicating a fast response to the nutrient enrichment of the UPZ, probably by wind-forced mixing. Later, increased fluxes of G. oceanica and E. huxleyi in October-November 2013 coincided with the occurrence of Amazon-River-affected surface waters. Since the spring and fall events of 2013 were also accompanied by two dust flux peaks, we propose a scenario in which atmospheric dust also provided fertilizing nutrients to this area. Enhanced surface buoyancy associated with the river plume indicates that the Amazon acted not only as a nutrient source, but also as a surface density retainer for nutrients supplied from the atmosphere. Nevertheless, lower total coccolith fluxes during these events compared to the maxima recorded in November 2012 and July 2013 indicate that transient productivity by opportunistic species was less important than "background" tropical productivity in the equatorial North Atlantic. This study illustrates how two apparently similar sites in the tropical open ocean actually differ greatly in ecological and oceanographic terms. The results presented here provide valuable insights into the processes governing the ecological dynamics and the downward export of coccolithophores in the tropical North Atlantic.Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [822.01.008]; European Research Council (ERC) [311152]; University of Bremen; European Union [600411]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Long-chain diols in settling particles in tropical oceans: insights into sources, seasonality and proxies

In this study we analyzed sediment trap time series from five tropical sites to assess seasonal variations in concentrations and fluxes of long-chain diols (LCDs) and associated proxies with emphasis on the long-chain diol index (LDI) temperature proxy. For the tropical Atlantic, we observe that generally less than 2&thinsp;% of LCDs settling from the water column are preserved in the sediment. The Atlantic and Mozambique Channel traps reveal minimal seasonal variations in the LDI, similar to the two other lipid-based temperature proxies TEX86 and U37K′. In addition, annual mean LDI-derived temperatures are in good agreement with the annual mean satellite-derived sea surface temperatures (SSTs). In contrast, the LDI in the Cariaco Basin shows larger seasonal variation, as do the TEX86 and U37K′. Here, the LDI underestimates SST during the warmest months, which is possibly due to summer stratification and the habitat depth of the diol producers deepening to around 20–30&thinsp;m. Surface sediment LDI temperatures in the Atlantic and Mozambique Channel compare well with the average LDI-derived temperatures from the overlying sediment traps, as well as with decadal annual mean SST. Lastly, we observed large seasonal variations in the diol index, as an indicator of upwelling conditions, at three sites: in the eastern Atlantic, potentially linked to Guinea Dome upwelling; in the Cariaco Basin, likely caused by seasonal upwelling; and in the Mozambique Channel, where diol index variations may be driven by upwelling from favorable winds and/or eddy migration.</p

The mysterious long-range transport of giant mineral dust particles

Giant mineral dust particles (>75 mm in diameter) found far from their source have long puzzled scientists. These wind-blown particles affect the atmosphere’s radiation balance, clouds, and the ocean carbon cycle but are generally ignored in models. Here, we report new observations of individual giant Saharan dust particles of up to 450 mm in diameter sampled in air over the Atlantic Ocean at 2400 and 3500 km from the west African coast. Past research points to fast horizontal transport, turbulence, uplift in convective systems, and electrical levitation of particles as possible explanations for this fascinating phenomenon. We present a critical assessment of these mechanisms and propose several lines of research we deem promising to further advance our understanding and modeling

Environmental factors controlling the seasonal variability in particle size distribution of modern Saharan dust deposited off Cape Blanc

The particle sizes of Saharan dust in marine sediment core records have been used frequently as a proxy for trade-wind speed. However, there are still large uncertainties with respect to the seasonality of the particle sizes of deposited Saharan dust off northwestern Africa and the factors influencing this seasonality. We investigated a three-year time-series of grain-size data from two sediment-trap moorings off Cape Blanc, Mauritania and compared them to observed wind-speed and precipitation as well as satellite images. Our results indicate a clear seasonality in the grain-size distributions: during summer the modal grain sizes were generally larger and the sorting was generally less pronounced compared to the winter season. Gravitational settling was the major deposition process during winter. We conclude that the following two mechanisms control the modal grain size of the collected dust during summer: (1) wet deposition causes increased deposition fluxes resulting in coarser modal grain sizes and (2) the development of cold fronts favors the emission and transport of coarse particles off Cape Blanc. Individual dust-storm events throughout the year could be recognized in the traps as anomalously coarse-grained samples. During winter and spring, intense cyclonic dust-storm events in the dust-source region explained the enhanced emission and transport of a larger component of coarse particles off Cape Blanc. The outcome of our study provides important implications for climate modellers and paleo-climatologists

Glacial to Holocene swings of the Australian–Indonesian monsoon

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Geoscience 4 (2011): 540–544, doi:10.1038/ngeo1209.The Australian-Indonesian monsoon is an important component of the climate system in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. However, its past variability, relation with northern and southern high latitude climate and connection to the other Asian monsoon systems are poorly understood. Here we present high-resolution records of monsoon-controlled austral winter upwelling during the past 22,000 years, based on planktic foraminiferal oxygen isotope and faunal composition in a sedimentary archive collected offshore southern Java. We show that glacial-interglacial variations in the Australian-Indonesian winter monsoon were in phase with the Indian summer monsoon system, consistent with their modern linkage through cross-equatorial surface winds. Likewise, millennial-scale variability of upwelling shares similar sign and timing with upwelling variability in the Arabian Sea. On the basis of element composition and grain-size distribution as precipitation-sensitive proxies in the same archive, we infer that (austral) summer monsoon rainfall was highest during the Bølling-Allerød period and the past 2,500 years. Our results indicate drier conditions during Heinrich Stadial 1 due to a southward shift of summer rainfall and a relatively weak Hadley Cell south of the Equator. We suggest that the Australian-Indonesian summer and winter monsoon variability were closely linked to summer insolation and abrupt climate changes in the northern hemisphere.This study was funded by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (PABESIA) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, HE 3412/15-1). DWO’s participation was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation

Fast reconnaissance of carbonate dissolution based on the size distribution of calcareous ooze on Walvis Ridge, SE Atlantic Ocean.

We present a new index of carbonate fragmentation based on the size distribution of bulk sediments in core MD962094 from Walvis Ridge (SE Atlantic Ocean). The carbonate fragmentation index is constructed by taking a ratio of the two coarsest fractions in the grain size distributions of the bulk calcareous ooze. The coarsest two fractions (25-90 μm and > 90 μm) of the bulk sediments consist primarily of complete shells and fragments of adult foraminifera shells, and juvenile foraminifera shells and fragments, respectively. The ratio of the proportions of the two fractions is interpreted as a measure of fragmentation of the foraminifera shells caused by carbonate dissolution. Downcore changes in our carbonate fragmentation index compare very well with those in the coarse-carbonate fragmentation index in sediments from a nearby core on Walvis Ridge. The latter commonly used fragmentation index is defined as a ratio of foraminifera fragments over whole foraminifera in the > 150-μm fraction as seen with a light microscope. Fragmentation is relatively high during glacial stages and relatively low during interglacial stages during the last 300 kyr, caused by the combined effect of wind-driven upwelling of corrosive water and increased production of organic matter, decreasing the preservation potential of carbonates both during and after deposition. The carbonate fragmentation index we present here provides a precise and fast method to establish a downcore fragmentation record. It can be applied to bulk sediments that are carbonate-rich (CaC