Description: The relationship between climate, biological productivity, and nutrient flux is of considerable interest in the subarctic Pacific, which represents an important high-nitrate, low-chlorophyll region. While previous studies suggest that changes in iron supply and/or physical ocean stratification could hypothetically explain orbital-scale fluctuations in subarctic Pacific nutrient utilization and productivity, previous records of nutrient utilization are too short to evaluate these relationships over many glacial-interglacial cycles. We present new, high-resolution records of sedimentary d15N, which offer the first opportunity to evaluate systematic, orbital-scale variations in subarctic Pacific nitrate utilization from 1.2 Ma. Nitrate utilization was enhanced during all glacials, varied with orbital-scale periodicity since the mid-Pleistocene transition, was strongly correlated with enhanced aeolian dust and low atmospheric CO2, but was not correlated with productivity. These results suggest that glacial stratification, rather than iron fertilization, systematically exerted an important regional control on nutrient utilization and air-sea carbon flux.

Description: The Bering Strait provides a shallow connection that allows freshwater to flow from the North Pacific into the North Atlantic, but this passage was closed during past glacials when sea level was at least 50 m lower than at present. Climate models investigating Bering Strait closure predict that this mechanism increases the salinity in the North Atlantic and reduces the salinity in the North Pacific, inducing a Pacific-Atlantic seesaw in meridional overturning circulation and poleward heat flux. However, the Pacific circulation response to Bering Strait closure, and thus the seesaw theory, has not been tested by long paleoceanographic records. We present long records of foraminiferal d18O and d13C from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site 323-U1342 in the Bering Sea, which provide the first evidence of enhanced North Pacific Intermediate Water when the Bering Strait was closed during each of the extreme glacials of the last 1.2 Myr. These results suggest that orbital-scale variations in North Pacific Intermediate Water are coherent and in phase with variations in upper North Atlantic Deep Water but are unrelated to changes in lower North Atlantic Deep Water. Together, these results provide evidence for systematic, orbital-scale variability in North Pacific Ocean circulation and may challenge the idea of an orbital-scale Pacific-Atlantic seesaw.

Description: Three sites, drilled during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 167, were chosen for detailed late Pleistocene paleoceanographic studies of intermediate water along the California margin. These sites are Site 1011 (Animal Basin, 31°17'N, 117°38'W, 2033 m water depth, 1600 m sill depth), Site 1012 (East Cortez Basin, 32°17'N, 118°23'W, 1783 m water depth, 1415 m sill depth), and Site 1018 (Guide Seamount, 36°59'N, 123°17'W, 2476 m water depth). Here we present carbon and oxygen isotopic measurements of benthic foraminifers from these three sites. We made 135 measurements from Site 1011, 387 measurements from Site 1012, and 231 measurements from Site 1018. This data report includes an explanation of the methods used to generate these isotopic records and the age models for each site. Detailed paleoceanographic interpretations of the isotopic records are currently under way.

Description: We present Pleistocene oxygen and carbon isotope records from two planktonic foraminifer species (Globigerinoides sacculifer and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei) from Ocean Drilling Program Site 847 (0°16'N, 95°19'W; 3334 m water depth). An average sample resolution of 4500 yr was obtained by sampling at an interval of 15 cm through a continuous 35-m section from 0 to 1.15 Ma. Our d18O-based chronology is similar to that derived independently by astronomically tuning the gamma-ray attenuation porosity evaluator (GRAPE) record (Shackleton et al., 1995), though offsets as large as ± 30 k.y. occur on occasion. The surface waters at eastern equatorial Pacific Site 847, 380 km west of the Galapagos, are characterized by strong and constant upwelling, elevated nutrient concentrations, and high productivity. The isotopic composition of G. sacculifer (300-355 µm) reflects conditions in the thin-surface mixed layer, and the composition of N. dutertrei (355-425 µm) monitors the subsurface waters of the permanent shallow (10-40 m) thermocline. The Pleistocene d18O difference (N. dutertrei minus G. sacculifer, Dd18Od-s) averages 0.9 per mil and ranges from 0 per mil to 1.7 per mil. Neglecting species effects and shell size, the average Pleistocene d13C difference (G. sacculifer minus N. dutertrei, Dd13Cs-d) is 0.0 per mil and ranges from -0.5 per mil to 0.5 per mil. The Dd18Od-s and Dd13Cs-d records are used to infer vertical contrasts in upper ocean water temperature and nutrient concentration, though d13C may also be influenced by other factors, such as CO2 gas exchange. Variations in the isotopic differences are often synchronous with glacial/interglacial climate change. Glacial periods are characterized by smaller vertical contrasts in both temperature and nutrient concentration, and by notably greater accumulation rates of N. dutertrei and CaCO3. We attribute these responses to greater upwelling at the equatorial divergence. Superimposed on the glacial/interglacial Dd18Od-s pattern is a long-term trend possibly associated with the advection of Peru Current waters. The temporal fluctuations in the isotopic contrasts are strikingly similar to those observed at Site 851 (Ravelo and Shackleton, this volume), suggesting that the inferred changes in thermal and chemical profiles occurred over a broad region in the equatorial Pacific.

Description: This study investigates changes in the upper water column hydrography at Site 851 of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean since the late Pliocene, using the oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of three species of planktonic foraminifers, each calcifying at different depths in the photic zone. The upper ocean seasonal hydrography in this region responds to the seasonally changing trade winds and thus is expected to respond to past changes in trade winds. One major change occurs at about 1.5 Ma, when the thermocline adjusts from a deep position to a shallower position. The thermocline remains in a relatively shallow position throughout the record up to recent time, with slight variations occurring synchronously with glacial/interglacial stages. In glacials, SSTs are probably a few degrees cooler and the thermocline is slightly deeper. From our knowledge of seasonal and interannual adjustments of the thermocline in this location, a deeper thermocline might be interpreted as either a decrease in the strength of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) that results from lower mean wind strength or an increase in the Equatorial Countercurrent (ECC), which results from an increase in the strength of the southeasterly trade winds. A major shift from higher to lower carbon isotope values occurred at about 1.9 Ma, marking a transition to reduced planktonic-benthic d13C differences after 1.9 Ma. The carbon isotopic data indicate that changes in the carbon isotopic composition of intermediate upwelling water occurs at higher frequencies than the glacial/interglacial changes in ice volume.

Description: For paleoceanographic studies, it is important to understand the processes that influence the calcium (Ca) isotopic composition of foraminiferal calcite tests preserved in the sediment record. Seven species of planktonic foraminifera from coretop sediments collectively exhibited a Ca temperature dependent fractionation of 0.013 per mil per °C. This is in agreement with previously published estimates for most species of planktonic foraminifera as well as biogenic and inorganic calcite and aragonite. Four species of planktonic foraminifera collected from a sediment trap showed a considerable amount of scatter and no consistent temperature dependent fractionation. Analyzed size fractions of coretop samples show no significant relationship with d44/40Ca. However, preliminary results suggest that the symbiotic and spinose foraminifera G. sacculifer might exhibit a relationship between test size and d44/40Ca. A one-box model in which Ca isotopes are allowed to fractionate by Rayleigh distillation from a biomineralization reservoir (internal pool) was used to constrain the isotopic composition of the original biomineralization Ca reservoir, assuming around 85% of the Ca reservoir is precipitated and the fractionation factor during precipitation is 0.9985 + 0.00002(T ºC). To explain the foraminiferal Ca isotope data, this model indicates that the Ca isotopic composition of the biomineralization reservoir is offset from seawater (approximately -0.8per mil).

Description: The Western Equatorial Pacific (WEP) warm pool, with surface temperatures 〉28 °C and a relatively deep thermocline, is an important source of latent and sensible heat for the global climate system. Because the tropics are not sensitive to ice‐albedo feedbacks, the WEP's response to radiative forcing can be used to constrain a minimum estimate of Earth system sensitivity. Climate modeling of pCO2‐radiative warming projections shows little change in WEP variability; here we use temperature distributions of individual surface and subsurface dwelling fossil foraminifera to evaluate past variability and possible radiative and dynamic climate forcing over the Plio‐Pleistocene. We investigate WEP warm pool variability within paired glacial‐interglacial (G‐IG) intervals for four times: the Holocene‐Last Glacial Maximum, ~2 Ma, ~3 Ma, and ~ 4 Ma. Our results show that these surface and subsurface temperature distributions are similar for all G‐IG pairs, indicating no change in variability, even as pCO2‐radiative forcing and other boundary conditions changed on G‐IG timescales. Plio‐Pleistocene SST distributions are similar to those from the Holocene, indicating WEP SSTs respond to pCO2‐radiative forcing and associated feedbacks. In contrast, Plio‐Pleistocene subsurface temperature distributions suggest subsurface temperatures respond to changes in thermocline temperature and depth. We estimate tropical temperature sensitivity for the mid‐Pliocene (~3 Ma) using our individual foraminifera SST dataset and a previously published high‐resolution boron isotope based pCO2 reconstruction. We find tropical temperature sensitivity was equal to, or less than that of the Late Pleistocene.

Description: Millennial-scale climate events in the North Pacific are thought to be related to changes in the circulation of North Pacific Intermediate Water, which may have formed in the Bering Sea in the past. To advance our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie millennial-scale events, Bering Sea sediment cores from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program site U1340 were used to construct high-resolution, multiproxy climate records of the last 90,000 years. Sediment density records show millennial-scale events resembling Dansgaard-Oeschger events, several of which are laminated. Interstadials were characterized by 3–5 °C warming, increased productivity driven by upwelling, and reduced benthic oxygenation. Bering Sea intermediate water also changed over longer timescales; our records show the presence of intermediate water with lower salinity and higher oxygen content than modern beginning around 60 ka and persisting until the beginning of the deglaciation. The Bølling-Allerød was characterized by high productivity, laminated sediments, and strong denitrification signature. Our data support the idea that productivity-derived changes in oxygenation at intermediate water source regions may have contributed to the intensification of the North Pacific–wide oxygen minima during the Bølling-Allerød.