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Extreme deepening of the Atlantic overturning circulation during deglaciation

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 567–571 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Glacial terminations during the late Pleistocene epoch are associated with changes in insolation. They are also punctuated by millennial-scale climate shifts, characterized by a weakening and subsequent strengthening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. This ubiquitous association suggests that these oscillations may be a necessary component of deglaciation. Model simulations have suggested that the period of weakened circulation during these terminal oscillations would be followed by an overshoot of the circulation on its resumption, but this phenomenon has not yet been observed. Here we use radiocarbon measurements of benthic foraminifera and carbonate preservation indices to reconstruct ventilation changes in the deep South Atlantic Ocean over the past 40,000 years. We find evidence for a particularly deep expansion of the Atlantic overturning cell directly following the weak mode associated with Heinrich Stadial 1. Our analysis of an ocean general circulation model simulation suggests that North Atlantic Deep Water export during the expansion was greater than that of interglacial conditions. We find a similar deep expansion during Dansgaard–Oeschger Interstadial Event 8, 38,000 years ago, which followed Heinrich Stadial 4. We conclude that the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and resultant warming associated with an especially weak overturning circulation are sufficient to trigger a switch to a vigorous circulation, but a full transition to interglacial conditions requires additional forcing at an orbital scale.

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Figure 1: Deglacial radiocarbon and carbonate preservation.
Figure 2: The bipolar see-saw and deep-water ventilation over the past 40 kyr.
Figure 3: Relative timing of surface- and deep-water responses.
Figure 4: Deep Atlantic flow-field changes during the HS1/B–A transition.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Van de Flierdt, D. Thornalley, P. Sexton and W. Broecker for useful discussions and H. Medley for help in the laboratory. Sample material used in this project was provided by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Deep-Sea Sample Repository. We thank R. Lotty and G. Lozefski for their help with sampling. Support for the collection and curating facilities of the core collection is provided by the National Science Foundation through Grant OCE00-02380 and the Office of Naval Research through Grant N00014-02-1-0073. The work was supported by a National Science Foundation (US) grant (OCE -0435703) and Natural Environment Research Council (UK) grants NE/F002734/1 and NE/G004021/1.

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Author notes

  1. Maryline J. Vautravers & Paula Diz

    Present address: Present addresses: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK (M.J.V.); Department of Xeociencias Mariñas e Ordenación do Territorio, Facultade de Ciencias, University of Vigo, 36200 Vigo, Spain (P.D.),

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK

    Stephen Barker, Gregor Knorr & Paula Diz

  2. Alfred Wegener Institute, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany

    Gregor Knorr

  3. British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

    Maryline J. Vautravers

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK

    Luke C. Skinner

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Contributions

S.B. designed and managed the project, G.K. carried out model analysis, S.B. and G.K. developed interpretation with help from all authors. M.J.V. carried out foraminiferal counts, P.D. picked and prepared benthic foraminifera for 14C dating. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Stephen Barker, Maryline J. Vautravers or Paula Diz.

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Barker, S., Knorr, G., Vautravers, M. et al. Extreme deepening of the Atlantic overturning circulation during deglaciation. Nature Geosci 3, 567–571 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo921

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