An oceanic cold reversal during the last deglaciation

A detailed deuterium excess profile measured along the Dome C EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) core reveals the timing and strength of the sea surface temperature changes at the source regions for Dome C precipitation. We infer that an Oceanic Cold Reversal took place in the southern Indian Ocean, 800 years after the Antarctic Cold Reversal. The temperature gradient between the oceanic moisture source and Antarctica is similar to the Dome C sodium profile during the deglaciation, illustrating the strong link between this gradient and the strength of the atmospheric circulation.     

Asynchronous climate changes in the North Atlantic and Japan during the last termination

Pollen records from the annually laminated sediment sequence in Lake Suigetsu, Japan, suggest a sequence of climate changes during the Last Termination that resembles that of the North Atlantic region but with noticeable differences in timing. An interstadial interval commenced a few centuries earlier [approximately 15,000 years before the present (yr B.P.)] than the North Atlantic GI-1 (B?lling) event. Conversely, the onset of a Younger Dryas (YD)-like cold reversal (12,300 to 11,250 yr B.P.) postdated the North Atlantic GS-1 (YD) event by a few centuries. Climate in the Far East during the Last Termination reflected solar insolation changes as much as Atlantic influences.     

Synchronous radiocarbon and climate shifts during the last deglaciation

Radiocarbon data from the Cariaco Basin provide calibration of the carbon-14 time scale across the period of deglaciation (15,000 to 10, 000 years ago) with resolution available previously only from Holocene tree rings. Reconstructed changes in atmospheric carbon-14 are larger than previously thought, with the largest change occurring simultaneously with the sudden climatic cooling of the Younger Dryas event. Carbon-14 and published beryllium-10 data together suggest that concurrent climate and carbon-14 changes were predominantly the result of abrupt shifts in deep ocean ventilation.     

Early reactivation of European rivers during the last deglaciation

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the sea-level lowstand combined with the large extent of the Fennoscandian and British ice sheets led to the funneling of European continental runoff, resulting in the largest river system that ever drained the European continent. Here, we show an abrupt and early reactivation of the European hydrological cycle at the onset of the last deglaciation, leading to intense discharge of the Channel River into the Bay of Biscay. This freshwater influx, probably combined with inputs from proglacial or ice-dammed lakes, dramatically affected the hydrology of the region, both on land and in the ocean.     

The Southern Ocean's role in carbon exchange during the last deglaciation

Changes in the upwelling and degassing of carbon from the Southern Ocean form one of the leading hypotheses for the cause of glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. We present a 25,000-year-long Southern Ocean radiocarbon record reconstructed from deep-sea corals, which shows radiocarbon-depleted waters during the glacial period and through the early deglaciation. This depletion and associated deep stratification disappeared by ~14.6 ka (thousand years ago), consistent with the transfer of carbon from the deep ocean to the surface ocean and atmosphere via a Southern Ocean ventilation event. Given this evidence for carbon exchange in the Southern Ocean, we show that existing deep-ocean radiocarbon records from the glacial period are sufficiently depleted to explain the ~190 per mil drop in atmospheric radiocarbon between ~17 and 14.5 ka.     

Phosphate depletion in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Surface waters of the subtropical Sargasso Sea contain dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) concentrations of 0.2 to 1.0 nanomolar, which are sufficiently low to result in phosphorus control of primary production. The DIP concentrations in this area (which receives high inputs of iron-rich dust from arid regions of North Africa) are one to two orders of magnitude lower than surface levels in the North Pacific (where eolian iron inputs are much lower and water column denitrification is much more substantial). These data indicate a severe relative phosphorus depletion in the Atlantic. We hypothesize that nitrogen versus phosphorus limitation of primary production in the present-day ocean may be closely linked to iron supply through control of dinitrogen (N2) fixation, an iron-intensive metabolic process. Although the oceanic phosphorus inventory may set the upper limit for the total amount of organic matter produced in the ocean over geological time scales, at any instant in geological time, oceanic primary production may fall below this limit because of a persistent insufficient iron supply. By controlling N2 fixation, iron may control not only nitrogen versus phosphorus limitation but also carbon fixation and export stoichiometry and hence biological sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.     

Abrupt climate oscillations during the last deglaciation in central north america

Evidence from stable isotopes and a variety of proxies from two Ontario lakes demonstrate that many of the late glacial-to-early Holocene events that are well known from the North Atlantic seaboard, such as the Gerzensee-Killarney Oscillation (also known as the Intra-Allerod Cold Period), Younger Dryas, and Preboreal Oscillation, also occurred in central North America. These results thus imply that climatic forcing acted in the same manner in both regions and that atmospheric circulation played an important role in the propagation of these events.     

Interannual variability in the North Atlantic Ocean carbon sink

The North Atlantic is believed to represent the largest ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Northern Hemisphere, yet little is known about its temporal variability. We report an 18-year time series of upper-ocean inorganic carbon observations from the northwestern subtropical North Atlantic near Bermuda that indicates substantial variability in this sink. We deduce that the carbon variability at this site is largely driven by variations in winter mixed-layer depths and by sea surface temperature anomalies. Because these variations tend to occur in a basinwide coordinated pattern associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation, it is plausible that the entire North Atlantic Ocean may vary in concert, resulting in a variability of the strength of the North Atlantic carbon sink of about +/-0.3 petagrams of carbon per year (1 petagram = 10(15) grams) or nearly +/-50%. This extrapolation is supported by basin-wide estimates from atmospheric carbon dioxide inversions.     

Climate records covering the last deglaciation

The oxygen-18/oxygen-16 ratio of molecular oxygen trapped in ice cores provides a time-stratigraphic marker for transferring the absolute chronology for the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP) II ice core to the Vostok and Byrd ice cores in Antarctica. Comparison of the climate records from these cores suggests that, near the beginning of the last deglaciation, warming in Antarctica began approximately 3000 years before the onset of the warm B?lling period in Greenland. Atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations began to rise 2000 to 3000 years before the warming began in Greenland and must have contributed to deglaciation and warming of temperate and boreal regions in the Northern Hemisphere.     

Thermokarst lakes as a source of atmospheric CH4 during the last deglaciation

Polar ice-core records suggest that an arctic or boreal source was responsible for more than 30% of the large increase in global atmospheric methane (CH4) concentration during deglacial climate warming; however, specific sources of that CH4 are still debated. Here we present an estimate of past CH4 flux during deglaciation from bubbling from thermokarst (thaw) lakes. Based on high rates of CH4 bubbling from contemporary arctic thermokarst lakes, high CH4 production potentials of organic matter from Pleistocene-aged frozen sediments, and estimates of the changing extent of these deposits as thermokarst lakes developed during deglaciation, we find that CH4 bubbling from newly forming thermokarst lakes comprised 33 to 87% of the high-latitude increase in atmospheric methane concentration and, in turn, contributed to the climate warming at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.     

The last deglaciation event in the eastern central arctic ocean

Oxygen isotope records of cores from the central Arctic Ocean yield evidence for a major influx of meltwater at the beginning of the last deglaciation 15.7 thousand years ago (16,650 calendar years B.C.). The almost parallel trends of the isotope records from the Arctic Ocean, the Fram Strait, and the east Greenland continental margin suggest contemporaneous variations of the Eurasian Arctic and Greenland (Laurentide) ice sheets or increased export of low-saline waters from the Arctic within the East Greenland Current during the last deglaciation. On the basis of isotope and carbon data, the modern surface- and deep-water characteristics and seasonally open-ice conditions with increased surface-water productivity were established in the central Arctic at the end of Termination lb about 7.2 thousand years ago or 6,000 calendar years B.C.).     

Radiocarbon dating and archeology in North America

The history of the development of a radiocarbon chronology shows how the establishment of the times of events and the order of them has greatly improved the understanding of prehistory in North America. This is true also of other parts of the world. Too little has been said of existing discordance between archeologically determined sequences, and interregional associations, and the radiocarbon chronology. It does appear that these will be resolved as additional dates are added and as the results become more finely calibrated so that secular variations may be accounted for. The collaborative aspect of the venture was apparent at the outset. Nevertheless no one expects an archeologist to delve into nuclear physics and geochemistry, and vice versa. There is great need, nevertheless, for the man in the laboratory to comprehend the difficulties of sample collecting and of judgement of the significance of the source of organic matter to be dated. At the same time, the archeologist must become more familiar with the importance of the various steps in the processing of the sample and with, what is most vital, interpretation of the significance of the numbers that appear on the counters.     

Rapid changes in the hydrologic cycle of the tropical Atlantic during the last glacial

Sedimentary time series of color reflectance and major element chemistry from the anoxic Cariaco Basin off the coast of northern Venezuela record large and abrupt shifts in the hydrologic cycle of the tropical Atlantic during the past 90,000 years. Marine productivity maxima and increased precipitation and riverine discharge from northern South America are closely linked to interstadial (warm) climate events of marine isotope stage 3, as recorded in Greenland ice cores. Increased precipitation at this latitude during interstadials suggests the potential for greater moisture export from the Atlantic to Pacific, which could have affected the salinity balance of the Atlantic and increased thermohaline heat transport to high northern latitudes. This supports the notion that tropical feedbacks played an important role in modulating global climate during the last glacial period.     

Reduced interannual rainfall variability in East Africa during the last ice age

Interannual rainfall variations in equatorial East Africa are tightly linked to the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with more rain and flooding during El Ni?o and droughts in La Ni?a years, both having severe impacts on human habitation and food security. Here we report evidence from an annually laminated lake sediment record from southeastern Kenya for interannual to centennial-scale changes in ENSO-related rainfall variability during the last three millennia and for reductions in both the mean rate and the variability of rainfall in East Africa during the Last Glacial period. Climate model simulations support forward extrapolation from these lake sediment data that future warming will intensify the interannual variability of East Africa's rainfall.     

Southern Hemisphere water mass conversion linked with North Atlantic climate variability

Intermediate water variability at multicentennial scales is documented by 340,000-year-long isotope time series from bottom-dwelling foraminifers at a mid-depth core site in the southwest Pacific. Periods of sudden increases in intermediate water production are linked with transient Southern Hemisphere warm episodes, which implies direct control of climate warming on intermediate water conversion at high southern latitudes. Coincidence with episodes of climate cooling and minimum or halted deepwater convection in the North Atlantic provides striking evidence for interdependence of water mass conversion in both hemispheres, with implications for interhemispheric forcing of ocean thermohaline circulation and climate instability.     

The last deglaciation of the southeastern sector of the Scandinavian ice sheet

The Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) was an important component of the global ice sheet system during the last glaciation, but the timing of its growth to or retreat from its maximum extent remains poorly known. We used 115 cosmogenic beryllium-10 ages and 70 radiocarbon ages to constrain the timing of three substantial ice-margin fluctuations of the SIS between 25,000 and 12,000 years before the present. The age of initial deglaciation indicates that the SIS may have contributed to an abrupt rise in global sea level. Subsequent ice-margin fluctuations identify opposite mass-balance responses to North Atlantic climate change, indicating differing ice-sheet sensitivities to mean climate state.     

Decline of subpolar North Atlantic circulation during the 1990s

Observations of sea surface height reveal that substantial changes have occurred over the past decade in the mid- to high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean. TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data show that subpolar sea surface height increased during the 1990s, and the geostrophic velocity derived from altimeter data exhibits declining subpolar gyre circulation. Combining the data from earlier satellites, we find that subpolar circulation may have been weaker in the late 1990s than in the late 1970s and 1980s. Direct current-meter observations in the boundary current of the Labrador Sea support the weakening circulation trend of the 1990s and, together with hydrographic data, show that the mid- to late 1990s decline extends deep in the water column. Analysis of the local surface forcing suggests that the 1990s buoyancy forcing has a dynamic effect consistent with altimetric and hydrographic observations: A weak thermohaline forcing allows the decay of the domed structure of subpolar isopycnals and weakening of circulation.     

Coupled thermal and hydrological evolution of tropical Africa over the last deglaciation

We analyzed the distribution of branched tetraether membrane lipids derived from soil bacteria in a marine sediment record that was recovered close to the Congo River outflow, and the results enabled us to reconstruct large-scale continental temperature changes in tropical Africa that span the past 25,000 years. Tropical African temperatures gradually increased from approximately 21 degrees to 25 degrees C over the last deglaciation, which is a larger warming than estimated for the tropical Atlantic Ocean. A direct comparison with sea-surface temperature estimates from the same core revealed that the land-sea temperature difference was, through the thermal pressure gradient, an important control on central African precipitation patterns.