ALBERT

Description: The supply of nutrients to the low-latitude thermocline is largely controlled by intermediate-depth waters formed at the surface in the high southern latitudes. Silicic acid is an essential macronutrient for diatoms, which are responsible for a significant portion of marine carbon export production. Changes in ocean circulation, such as those observed during the last deglaciation, would influence the nutrient composition of the thermocline and, therefore, the relative abundance of diatoms in the low latitudes. Here we present the first record of the silicic acid content of the Atlantic over the last glacial cycle. Our results show that at intermediate depths of the South Atlantic, the silicic acid concentration was the same at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as it is today, overprinted by high silicic acid pulses that coincided with abrupt changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation during Heinrich Stadials and the Younger Dryas. We suggest these pulses were caused by changes in intermediate water formation resulting from shifts in the subpolar hydrological cycle, with fundamental implications for the nutrient supply to the Atlantic.

Description: This study presents linear trends of coastal upwelling intensity in the later part of the 20th century (1960–2001) employing various indices of upwelling, derived from meridional wind stress and sea surface temperature. The analysis was conducted in the four major coastal upwelling regions in the world, which are off North-West Africa, Lüderitz, California and Peru respectively. The trends in meridional wind stress showed a steady increase of intensity from 1960–2001, which was also reflected in the SST index calculated for the same time period. The steady cooling observed in the instrumental records of SST off California substantiated this observation further. Correlation analysis showed that basin-scale oscillations like the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) could not be directly linked to the observed increase of upwelling intensity off NW Africa and California respectively. The relationship of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) with coastal upwelling off NW Africa turned out to be ambiguous due to a negative correlation between the NAO index and the meridional wind stress and a lack of correlation with the SST index. Our results give additional support to the hypothesis that the coastal upwelling intensity increases globally because of raising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and an associated increase of the land-sea pressure gradient and meridional wind stress.

Description: This study presents linear trends of coastal upwelling intensity in the later part of the 20th century (1960–2001) employing various indices of upwelling, derived from meridional wind stress and sea surface temperature. The analysis was conducted in the four major coastal upwelling regions in the world, which are off North-West Africa, Lüderitz, California and Peru. The trends in meridional wind stress showed a steady increase of intensity from 1960–2001, which was also reflected in the SST index calculated for the same time period. The steady cooling observed in the instrumental records of SST off California substantiated this observation further. It was also noted that the trends in meridional wind stress obtained from different datasets differ substantially from each other. Correlation analysis showed that basin-scale oscillations like the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) could not be directly linked to the observed increase of upwelling intensity off NW Africa and California respectively. The relationship of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) with coastal upwelling off NW Africa turned out to be ambiguous due to a negative correlation between the NAO index and the meridional wind stress and a lack of correlation with the SST index. Our results give additional support to the hypothesis that the coastal upwelling intensity increases globally because of raising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and an associated increase of the land-sea pressure gradient and meridional wind stress.

Description: Relict dune fields that are found as far south as 14° N in the modern-day African Sahel are testament to equatorward expansions of the Sahara desert during the Late Pleistocene. However, the discontinuous nature of dune records means that abrupt millennial-timescale climate events are not always resolved. High-resolution marine core studies have identified Heinrich stadials as the dustiest periods of the last glacial in West Africa although the spatial evolution of dust export on millennial timescales has so far not been investigated. We use the major-element composition of four high-resolution marine sediment cores to reconstruct the spatial extent of Saharan-dust versus river-sediment input to the continental margin from West Africa over the last 60 ka. This allows us to map the position of the sediment composition corresponding to the Sahara–Sahel boundary. Our records indicate that the Sahara–Sahel boundary reached its most southerly position (13° N) during Heinrich stadials and hence suggest that these were the periods when the sand dunes formed at 14° N on the continent. Heinrich stadials are associated with cold North Atlantic sea surface temperatures which appear to have triggered abrupt increases of aridity and wind strength in the Sahel. Our study illustrates the influence of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the position of the Sahara–Sahel boundary and on global atmospheric dust loading.

Description: We investigate changes in the delivery and oceanic transport of Amazon sediments related to terrestrial climate variations over the last 250 ka. We present high-resolution geochemical records from four marine sediment cores located between 5 and 12° N along the northern South American margin. The Amazon River is the sole source of terrigenous material for sites at 5 and 9° N, while the core at 12° N receives a mixture of Amazon and Orinoco detrital particles. Using an endmember unmixing model, we estimated the relative proportions of Amazon Andean material ("%-Andes", at 5 and 9° N) and of Amazon material ("%-Amazon", at 12° N) within the terrigenous fraction. The %-Andes and %-Amazon records exhibit significant precessional variations over the last 250 ka that are more pronounced during interglacials in comparison to glacial periods. High %-Andes values observed during periods of high austral summer insolation reflect the increased delivery of suspended sediments by Andean tributaries and enhanced Amazonian precipitation, in agreement with western Amazonian speleothem records. Increased Amazonian rainfall reflects the intensification of the South American monsoon in response to enhanced land–ocean thermal gradient and moisture convergence. However, low %-Amazon values obtained at 12° N during the same periods seem to contradict the increased delivery of Amazon sediments. We propose that reorganizations in surface ocean currents modulate the northwestward transport of Amazon material. In agreement with published records, the seasonal North Brazil Current retroflection is intensified (or prolonged in duration) during cold substages of the last 250 ka (which correspond to intervals of high DJF or low JJA insolation) and deflects eastward the Amazon sediment and freshwater plume.

Description: During Termination 1, millennial-scale weakening events of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) supposedly produced major changes in sea surface temperatures (SST) of the western South Atlantic, and in mean air temperatures (MAT) over southeastern South America. It was suggested, for instance, that the Brazil Current (BC) would strengthen (weaken) and the North Brazil Current (NBC) would weaken (strengthen) during slowdown (speed-up) events of the AMOC. This anti-phase pattern was claimed to be a necessary response to the decreased North Atlantic heat piracy during periods of weak AMOC. However, the thermal evolution of the western South Atlantic and the adjacent continent is largely unknown and a compelling record of the BC-NBC anti-phase behavior remains elusive. Here we address this issue, presenting high temporal resolution SST and MAT records from the BC and southeastern South America, respectively. We identify a warming in the western South Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), which is followed first by a drop and then by increasing temperatures during the Bølling–Allerød, in-phase with an existing NBC record. Additionally, a similar SST evolution is shown by a southernmost eastern South Atlantic record, suggesting a South Atlantic-wide pattern in SST evolution during most of Termination 1. Over southeastern South America, our MAT record shows a two-step increase during Termination 1, synchronous with atmospheric CO2 rise (i.e., during the second half of HS1 and during the Younger Dryas), and lagging abrupt SST changes by several thousand years. This delay corroborates the notion that the long duration of HS1 was fundamental to drive the Earth out of the last glacial.

Description: We investigate changes in the delivery and oceanic transport of Amazon sediments related to terrestrial climate variations over the last 250 ka. We present high-resolution geochemical records from four marine sediment cores located between 5 and 12° N along the northern South American margin. The Amazon River is the sole source of terrigenous material for sites at 5 and 9° N, while the core at 12° N receives a mixture of Amazon and Orinoco detrital particles. Using an endmember unmixing model, we estimated the relative proportions of Amazon Andean material ("%-Andes", at 5 and 9° N) and of Amazon material ("%-Amazon", at 12° N) within the terrigenous fraction. The %-Andes and %-Amazon records exhibit significant precessional variations over the last 250 ka that are more pronounced during interglacials in comparison to glacial times. High %-Andes values observed during periods of high austral summer insolation reflect the increased delivery of suspended sediments by Andean tributaries and enhanced Amazonian precipitation, in agreement with western Amazonian speleothem records. However, low %-Amazon values obtained at 12° N during the same periods seem to contradict the increased delivery of Amazon sediments. We propose that reorganisations in surface ocean currents modulate the northwestward transport of Amazon material. In agreement with published records, the seasonal North Brazil Current retroflection is intensified (or prolonged in duration) during cold substages of the last 250 ka (which correspond to intervals of high DJF or low JJA insolation) and deflects eastward the Amazon sediment and freshwater plume.

Description: Relict dune fields that are found at 14° N in the modern-day African Sahel are testament to equatorward expansions of the Sahara desert during the late Pleistocene. However, difficulties of dating dune formation mean that abrupt millennial-scale climate events are not always resolved in these records. High-resolution marine core studies have identified Heinrich Stadials as the dustiest periods of the last glacial, although no studies have mapped the spatio-temporal evolution of dust export from West Africa. We use the major-element composition of four marine sediment cores to reconstruct the spatial extent of Saharan-dust versus river-sediment input to the continental margin from West Africa over the last 60 ka. This allows us to map the position of the sediment composition corresponding to the Sahara-Sahel boundary. Our records indicate that the Sahara-Sahel boundary reached its most southerly position (13° N) during Heinrich Stadials, suggesting that these were the periods when the sand dunes formed at 14° N on the continent, rather than at the Last Glacial Maximum. We find that SSB position was closely linked to North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, which during Heinrich Stadials triggered abrupt increases of aridity and wind strength in the Sahel, exposing new dust sources. This result illustrates the influence of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the southerly extent of the Sahara desert and has implications for global atmospheric dust loading.

Description: To reconstruct variability of the West African monsoon and associated vegetation changes on precessional and millennial time scales, we analyzed a marine sediment core from the continental slope off Senegal spanning the past 44,000 years (44 ka). We used the stable hydrogen isotopic composition (dD) of individual terrestrial plant wax n-alkanes as a proxy for past rainfall variability. The abundance and stable carbon isotopic composition (d13C) of the same compounds were analyzed to assess changes in vegetation composition (C3/C4 plants) and density. The dD record reveals two wet periods that coincide with local maximum summer insolation from 38 to 28 ka and 15 to 4 ka and that are separated by a less wet period during minimum summer insolation. Our data indicate that rainfall intensity during the rainy season throughout both wet humid periods was similar, whereas the length of the rainy season was presumably shorter during the last glacial than during the Holocene. Additional dry intervals are identified that coincide with North Atlantic Heinrich stadials and the Younger Dryas interval, indicating that the West African monsoon over tropical northwest Africa is linked to both insolation forcing and highlatitude climate variability. The d13C record indicates that vegetation of the western Sahel was consistently dominated by C4 plants during the past 44 ka, whereas C3-type vegetation increased during the Holocene. Moreover, we observe a gradual ending of the Holocene humid period together with unchanging ratio of C3 to C4 plants, indicating that an abrupt aridification due to vegetation feedbacks is not a general characteristic of this time interval.