ALBERT

Description: The temporal succession of changes in Amazonian hydroclimate during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1) (ca. 18-14.7 cal ka BP) is currently poorly resolved. Here we present HS1 records based on isotope, inorganic and organic geochemistry from a marine sediment core influenced by the Amazon River discharge. Our records offer a detailed reconstruction of the changes in Amazonian hydroclimate during HS1, integrated over the basin. We reconstructed surface water hydrography using stable oxygen isotopes (d18O) and Mg/Ca-derived paleotemperatures from the planktonic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber, as well as salinity changes based on stable hydrogen isotope (dD) of palmitic acid. We also analyzed branched and isoprenoid tetraether concentrations, and compared them to existing bulk sediment ln(Fe/Ca) data and vegetation reconstruction based on stable carbon isotopes from n-alkanes, in order to understand the relationship between continental precipitation, vegetation and sediment production. Our results indicate a two-phased HS1 (HS1a and HS1b). During HS1a (18-16.9 cal ka BP), a first sudden increase of sea surface temperatures (SST) in the western equatorial Atlantic correlated with the slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the associated southern hemisphere warming phase of the bipolar seesaw. This phase was also characterized by an increased delivery of terrestrial material. During HS1b (16.9-14.8 cal ka BP), a decrease in terrestrial input was, however, associated with a marked decline of seawater d18O and palmitic acid dD. Both isotopic proxies independently indicate a drop in sea surface salinity (SSS). A number of records under the influence of the North Brazil Current, in contrast, indicate increases in SST and SSS resulting from a weakened AMOC during HS1. Our records thus suggest that the expected increase in SSS due to the AMOC slowdown was overridden by a two-phased positive precipitation anomaly in Amazonian hydroclimate.

Description: Seafloor methane release can significantly affect the global carbon cycle and climate. Appreciable quantities of methane are stored in continental margin sediments as shallow gas and hydrate deposits, and changes in pressure, temperature and/or bottom-currents can liberate significant amounts of this greenhouse gas. Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of marine methane deposits and their relationships to environmental change are critical for assessing past and future carbon cycle and climate change. Here we present foraminiferal stable carbon isotope and sediment mineralogy records suggesting for the first time that seafloor methane release occurred along the southern Brazilian margin during the last glacial period (40–20 cal ka BP). Our results show that shallow gas deposits on the southern Brazilian margin responded to glacial−interglacial paleoceanographic changes releasing methane due to the synergy of sea level lowstand, warmer bottom waters and vigorous bottom currents during the last glacial period. High sea level during the Holocene resulted in an upslope shift of the Brazil Current, cooling the bottom waters and reducing bottom current strength, reducing methane emissions from the southern Brazilian margin.

Description: The western tropical Atlantic plays an important role in the interhemispheric redistribution of heat during millennial-scale changes in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The proper evaluation of this role depends on a clear understanding of sea surface temperature (SST) variations during AMOC slowdown periods like Heinrich Stadials (HS) in the western tropical Atlantic. However, published SST records from the western tropical Atlantic between ca. 4°S and 7°N show inconsistencies that are apparently related to the employed temperature proxy (i.e., Mg/Ca versus alkenone unsaturation index U37k′). In general, while Mg/Ca values indicate warming during Heinrich Stadials, U37k′ values show cooling. To assess this issue, we sampled core GeoB16224-1 retrieved off French Guiana (i.e., 6°39.38′N) and reconstructed water temperatures at high resolution using Mg/Ca on the foraminifera species Globigerinoides ruber, U37k′, TEX86 and modern analogue technique (MAT) transfer functions using planktonic foraminifera assemblages calibrated for 50 m water depth. Our results show that Mg/Ca and TEX86 values recorded an increase in SST related to AMOC slowdown. Conversely, U37k′ and MAT values registered a decrease in temperatures during HS3 and HS1. Our U37k′ and Mg/Ca results thus confirm the previously reported inconsistency for the period between 48-13 cal ka BP. We suggest that several non-thermal physiological effects probably imparted a negative temperature bias on the U37k′ temperatures during Heinrich Stadials. However, MAT-based temperatures show similar variability with U37k′-based temperatures. Hence, we also suggest that during severe slowdown periods of the AMOC, a steeper meridional temperature gradient together with a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergent Zone produced not only an increase in SST but also a stronger upper water column stratification and a shoaling of the thermocline, decreasing subsurface temperatures. Our new high resolution temperature records allow a better characterization of the thermal response of the upper water column in the tropical western Atlantic to slowdown events of the AMOC, reconciling previously discrepant records.

Description: Marine productivity largely controls the oceanic uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide and contributed to the global climate changes that led to the termination of the last glacial cycle. Past changes in marine productivity were presumably associated with disturbances in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In the South Atlantic, however, the evolution of marine productivity throughout the last glacial–interglacial cycle is still poorly constrained mainly due to the scarcity of records with high temporal resolution. Here we present high‐resolution records of paleoproductivity and upper‐water‐column properties from the western subtropical South Atlantic covering the last 40,000 years. Our records are based on faunal and stable oxygen isotopic analyses of planktonic foraminifera from a marine sediment core collected from an upwelling region off southeastern South America (27°S). We used the relative abundance of eutrophic planktonic foraminifera (i.e., Globigerinita glutinata and Globigerina bulloides) as proxies of primary productivity. Our findings reveal, for the first time, enhanced primary productivity during Heinrich Stadials along the last glacial, when the AMOC showed reduced strength. Additionally, our results reveal decreased primary productivity over the Last Glacial Maximum, a period of markedly lower sea level; and the Younger Dryas, when the AMOC showed only moderate reductions. The most outstanding productivity decline, however, is depicted at the onset of the Holocene, when the AMOC recovers its strength. We hypothesize that the observed changes were triggered by the dynamics of the Brazil Current primarily driven by disturbances in the AMOC.

Description: We are providing records of Globorotalia crassaformis as a new late Quaternary biostratigraphic marker for the southeastern Brazilian margin.

Description: Western boundary upwelling systems such as those found in the southeastern Brazilian margin (SBM) are promoted by special atmospheric and oceanographic interactions with topography of the coastline. In order to investigate the evolution of the upwelling system in SBM over the past 110 kyr, the abundance of Globigerina bulloides (a planktonic foraminiferal species typically associated with upwelling waters) from two marine cores was combined with estimates of upper water thermal structure derived from Modern Analog Technique based on planktonic foraminifera. High abundances (up to 35%) of large specimens of G. bulloides (〉= 250 µm) associated with cooling subsurface waters reveal the occurrence of an intense coastal upwelling system between 110 kyr and 88 kyr. Changes in coastline orientation due to lower sea level stand (20-70 m lower than today) and a longer season of vigorous Brazil Current (BC) and prevailing northeasterly winds maintained permanently the cold and nutrient-rich South Atlantic Central Waters (SACW) over the shelf promoting the strongest upwelling system of the Brazilian coast over the past 110 kyr. At 88 kyr, a sharp reduction of 14% in abundance of G. bulloides and a 2.6 °C warming of the water column indicates an abrupt weakening of the coastal upwelling, probably caused by a disturbance in SACW formation. During the last glaciation, longer current winter-like conditions of prevailing southwesterly winds and a weakened Brazil Current suppressed the upwelling system in SBM. At this time, constant and relatively high abundance of G. bulloides (up to 10%) suggest that the coastal upwelling was restricted to a short period of months year-round, when the BC and northeasterly winds were relatively vigorous despite the glacial context. The predominance of warm and oligotrophic Tropical Waters due to the shutdown of coastal upwelling in northern SBM was inferred for the last 20 kyr. Despite vigorous northeasterly winds and BC strength, high sea level stand during the Holocene submersed the Abrolhos Bank (AB) leading to a new coastline configuration. Presently, the interaction between the AB and the BC generated a new oceanographic feature in SBM, the Vitoria Eddy, with very limited efficiency in producing a strong upwelling such as the one recorded in the past.

Description: The modern state of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation promotes a northerly maximum of tropical rainfall associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). For continental regions, abrupt millennial-scale meridional shifts of this rainbelt are well documented, but the behavior of its oceanic counterpart is unclear due the lack of a robust proxy and high temporal resolution records. Here we show that the Atlantic ITCZ leaves a distinct signature in planktonic foraminifera assemblages. We applied this proxy to investigate the history of the Atlantic ITCZ for the last 30,000 years based on two high temporal resolution records from the western Atlantic Ocean. Our reconstruction indicates that the shallowest mixed layer associated with the Atlantic ITCZ unambiguously shifted meridionally in response to changes in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning with a southward displacement during Heinrich Stadials 2-1 and the Younger Dryas. We conclude that the Atlantic ITCZ was located at ca. 1°S (ca. 5° to the south of its modern annual mean position) during Heinrich Stadial 1. This supports a previous hypothesis, which postulates a southern hemisphere position of the oceanic ITCZ during climatic states with substantially reduced or absent cross-equatorial oceanic meridional heat transport.

Description: Detailed knowledge about tropical South American precipitation patterns during Heinrich (H) and Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) stadials provides relevant insights into the possible evolution of Amazonian hydroclimate under future climate change. Sediment core GeoB16224-1 (ca. 7°N), raised from a site in the continental slope off French Guiana in western equatorial Atlantic under the influence of the Amazon River discharge, documents the impacts of H and DO stadials on both inorganic (i.e., Fe/Ca record) and organic (i.e., alkenone C37 concentration and C37/C38 ratio) geochemistry between 41 and 13 ka BP. Our results show millennial-scale covariations of increased Fe/Ca values with decreased C37 concentration and C37/C38 ratios during H and DO stadials. Comparing our high temporal resolution data with previously published records from ca. 17°N to 4°S, we are able to differentiate the influence of H and DO stadials upon tropical South American precipitation. We find that records under the influence of the South American summer monsoon (e.g., western Amazon) and the northern edge of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) (e.g., northernmost South America) exhibit strong climate shifts during both H and DO stadials, but regions under the influence of the southern edge of the ITCZ (e.g., northeastern Brazil) experience a weaker reaction during DO stadials than during H stadials.

Description: Changes in heat transport associated with fluctuations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) are widely considered to affect the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), but the temporal immediacy of this teleconnection has to date not been resolved. Based on a high-resolution marine sediment sequence over the last deglaciation, we provide evidence for a synchronous and near-linear link between changes in the Atlantic interhemispheric sea surface temperature difference and continental precipitation over northeast Brazil. The tight coupling between AMOC strength, sea surface temperature difference, and precipitation changes over northeast Brazil unambiguously points to a rapid and proportional adjustment of the ITCZ location to past changes in the Atlantic meridional heat transport.