Description: An excellent sediment record from the Arabian Sea traces recent patterns in the activity of the Asian monsoon. It reveals both variability in monsoon strength and links with climatic events elsewhere. The monsoon is the main determinant of environmental conditions over much of Asia, and so affects the most densely populated region on Earth. Differential heating of the north Indian Ocean and the northwest Pacific, and of the Asian land-mass, cause the seasonal reversal of monsoon winds. In summer, these winds blow northwards over the northern Indian Ocean, carrying huge amounts of moisture over the neighbouring land. The ensuing heavy rainfall can have devastating consequences for human life and livelihood. Conversely, agriculture in Asia depends on monsoon rains; and the seasonal upwelling of nutrient-laden subsurface waters, driven by monsoon winds, is essential to the success of coastal fisheries.

Description: Paired benthic Cd/Ca and δ13C records have been generated along core M35003 in the western tropical Atlantic. Decreased glacial water column dissolved cadmium (Cdw) and increased benthic δ13C indicate enhanced ventilation with nutrient-deplete intermediate waters, in line with similar inferences from other North Atlantic mid-depth records. An abrupt early deglacial δ13C collapse that is associated with a marked positive Cdw anomaly indicates a transient collapse of mid-depth ventilation from North Atlantic sources, conceivably in conjunction with the H1 meltwater anomaly. The Cdw record displays fine-scale fluctuations that mimic the Greenland Dansgaard/Oeschger (D/O) cycles and show decreased Cdw during stadials. This pattern is opposite to Cdw variations in a deep water record from Bermuda Rise that display increased Cdw concentrations during stadials. The divergent pattern between mid-depth and deep water Cdw records indicates millennial-scale switches between deep and shallow convection in the glacial North Atlantic, at the pace of the D/O climatic cycles. Several high-amplitude anomalies occur in the Cdw record that reach levels similar to those observed today in the North Pacific. While a substantial nutrient increase in the mid-depth North Atlantic cannot be ruled out during these events, changes of pore water chemistry and Cd/P fractionation during biological uptake offer alternative scenarios to explain the peak Cdw maxima.

Description: The Indian-Atlantic water exchange south of Africa (Agulhas leakage) is a key component of the global ocean circulation. No quantitative estimation of the paleo-Agulhas leakage exists. We quantify the variability in interocean exchange over the past 640,000 years, using planktic foraminiferal assemblage data from two marine sediment records to define an Agulhas leakage efficiency index. We confirm the validity of our new approach with a numerical ocean model that realistically simulates the modern Agulhas leakage changes. Our results suggest that, during the past several glacial-interglacial cycles, the Agulhas leakage varied by ~10 sverdrup and more during major climatic transitions. This lends strong credence to the hypothesis that modifications in the leakage played a key role in changing the overturning circulation to full strength mode. Our results are instrumental for validating and quantifying the contribution of the Indian-Atlantic water leakage to the global climate changes.

Description: Fossils of marine microorganisms such as planktic foraminifera are among the cornerstones of palaeoclimatological studies. It is often assumed that the proxies derived from their shells represent ocean conditions above the location where they were deposited. Planktic foraminifera, however, are carried by ocean currents and, depending on the life traits of the species, potentially incorporate distant ocean conditions. Here we use high-resolution ocean models to assess the footprint of planktic foraminifera and validate our method with proxy analyses from two locations. Results show that foraminifera, and thus recorded palaeoclimatic conditions, may originate from areas up to several thousands of kilometres away, reflecting an ocean state significantly different from the core site. In the eastern equatorial regions and the western boundary current extensions, the offset may reach 1.5 °C for species living for a month and 3.0 °C for longer-living species. Oceanic transport hence appears to be a crucial aspect in the interpretation of proxy signals.

Description: A suit of sediment cores close to and south of the Strait of Gibraltar (12°-36°N, 500–2800 m water depth) were analyzed for stable isotopes in epibenthic foraminifers Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and Planulina ariminensis. During peak glacial times, the data exhibit higher δ13C values of up to 1.6‰ at intermediate depths near the Strait of Gibraltar (36°N). The values decrease to the south as evidenced by our data, but also to the north as revealed by data of intermediate depth cores north of 38°N (in Duplessy et al. [1987]). Thus, the distribution pattern of δ13C provides crucial evidence for an increased influence of nutrient depleted Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) on the glacial northeast Atlantic hydrography. During oxygen isotope Terminations I and II, the meridional carbon isotope gradient indicates a significantly decreased but still active MOW. As deduced from the δ18O fluctuations, the temperatures of the MOW in the Atlantic were lower during glacial times by as much as 5°C. During glacial times and during Termination I the maximum δ13C values of the MOW correlate with minimum values of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and vice versa. This inverse response to climatic change of the carbon isotope signals of both water masses indicates, that the supply of saline MOW to the north Atlantic may be less important for the formation of NADW than previously assumed.

Description: The Multitracers Experiment studied a transect of water column, sediment trap, and sediment data taken across the California Current to develop quantitative methods for hindcasting paleoproductivity. The experiment used three sediment trap moorings located 120 km, 270 km, and 630 km from shore at the Oregon/California border in North America. We report here about the sedimentation and burial of particulate organic carbon (Corg) and CaCO3. In order to observe how the integrated CaCO3 and Corg burial across the transect has changed since the last glacial maximum, we have correlated core from the three sites using time scales constrained by both radiocarbon and oxygen isotopes. By comparing surface sediments to a two-and-a-half year sediment trap record, we have also defined the modern preservation rates for many of the labile sedimentary materials. Our analysis of the Corg data indicates that significant amounts (20–40%) of the total Corg being buried today in surface sediments is terrestrial. At the last glacial maximum, the terrestrial Corg fraction within 300 km of the coast was about twice as large. Such large fluxes of terrestrial Corg obscure the marine Corg record, which can be interpreted as productivity. When we corrected for the terrestrial organic matter, we found that the mass accumulation rate of marine Corg roughly doubled from the glacial maximum to the present. Because preservation rates of organic carbon are high in the high sedimentation rate cores, corrections for degradation are straightforward and we can be confident that organic carbon rain rate (new productivity) also doubled. As confirmation, the highest burial fluxes of other biogenic components (opal and Ba) also occur in the Holocene. Productivity off Oregon has thus increased dramatically since the last glacial maximum. CaCO3 fluxes also changed radically through the deglaciation; however, they are linked not to CaCO3 production but rather to changes in deepwater carbonate chemistry between 18 Ka and now.

Description: Stable isotope and faunal records from the central Red Sea show high-amplitude oscillations for the past 380,000 years. Positive δ18O anomalies indicate periods of significant salt buildup during periods of lowered sea level when water mass exchange with the Arabian Sea was reduced due to a reduced geometry of the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Salinities as high as 53‰ and 55‰ are inferred from pteropod and benthic foraminifera δ18O, respectively, for the last glacial maximum. During this period all planktonic foraminifera vanished from this part of the Red Sea. Environmental conditions improved rapidly after 13 ka as salinities decreased due to rising sea level. The foraminiferal fauna started to reappear and was fully reestablished between 9 ka and 8 ka. Spectral analysis of the planktonic δ18O record documents highest variance in the orbital eccentricity, obliquity, and precession bands, indicating a dominant influence of climatically - driven sea level change on environmental conditions in the Red Sea. Variance in the precession band is enhanced compared to the global mean marine climate record (SPECMAP), suggesting an additional influence of the Indian monsoon system on Red Sea climates.

Description: Stable isotopes in benthic foraminifera from Pacific sediments are used to assess hypotheses of systematic shifts in the depth distribution of oceanic nutrients and carbon during the ice ages. The carbon isotope differences between ∼1400 and ∼3200 m depth in the eastern Pacific are consistently greater in glacial than interglacial maxima over the last ∼370 kyr. This phenomenon of “bottom heavy” glacial nutrient distributions, which Boyle proposed as a cause of Pleistocene CO2 change, occurs primarily in the 1/100 and 1/41 kyr−1 “Milankovitch” orbital frequency bands but appears to lack a coherent 1/23 kyr−1 band related to orbital precession. Averaged over oxygen-isotope stages, glacial δ13C gradients from ∼1400 to ∼3200 m depth are 0.1‰ greater than interglacial gradients. The range of extreme shifts is somewhat larger, 0.2 to 0.5‰. In both cases, these changes in Pacific δ13C distributions are much smaller than observed in shorter records from the North Atlantic. This may be too small to be a dominant cause of atmospheric pCO2 change, unless current models underestimate the sensitivity of pCO2 to nutrient redistributions. This dampening of Pacific relative to Atlantic δ13C depth gradient favors a North Atlantic origin of the phenomenon, although local variations of Pacific intermediate water masses can not be excluded at present.