Abstract
During the last deglaciation, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations rose at the same time that the Δ14C of that CO2 fell. This has been attributed to the release of 14C-depleted carbon dioxide from the deep ocean1, possibly vented through the Southern Ocean2,3,4,5. Recently, a sediment record from the eastern North Pacific Ocean spanning the last deglaciation was interpreted to reflect transport of such radiocarbon-depleted CO2 from the Southern Ocean through Antarctic Intermediate Water2. However, the suggestion that the record reflects intermediate water derived from the Southern Ocean remains controversial. Here we assess the source of the deglacial intermediate water by measuring the neodymium isotopes of fossil fish teeth/debris from the same eastern North Pacific core used in the earlier study2. The isotopic signature of a water mass, which is captured in the fossil fish teeth, reflects the location in which it formed. Our data exhibit a clear shift in the neodymium isotope values towards Southern Ocean values about 18,000 years ago, coinciding with the negative Δ14C excursion. We conclude that these data support a Southern Ocean source for the deglacial radiocarbon-depleted CO2 detected in the eastern North Pacific.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Broecker, W. & Barker, S. A 190‰ drop in atmosphere’s Δ14C during the ‘Mystery Interval’ (17.5 to 14.5 kyr). Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 256, 90–99 (2007).
Marchitto, T. M., Lehman, S. J., Ortiz, J. D., Fluckiger, J. & van Geen, A. Marine radiocarbon evidence for the mechanism of deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise. Science 316, 1456–1459 (2007).
Stephens, B. B. & Keeling, R. F. The influence of Antarctic sea ice on glacial–interglacial CO2 variations. Nature 404, 171–174 (2000).
Francois, R. et al. Contribution of Southern Ocean surface-water stratification to low atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the last glacial period. Nature 389, 929–935 (1997).
Sigman, D. M. & Boyle, E. A. Glacial/interglacial variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Nature 407, 859–869 (2000).
Stott, L., Southon, J., Timmermann, A. & Koutavas, A. Radiocarbon age anomaly at intermediate water depth in the Pacific Ocean during the last deglaciation. Paleoceanography 24, PA2223 (2009).
Anderson, R. F. et al. Wind-driven upwelling in the southern ocean and the deglacial rise in atmospheric CO2 . Science 323, 1443–1448 (2009).
Monnin, E. et al. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last glacial termination. Science 291, 112–114 (2001).
Bostock, H. C., Opdyke, B. N. & Williams, M. J. M. Characterizing the intermediate depth waters of the Pacific Ocean using δ13C and other geochemical tracers. Deep-Sea Res. Part I 57, 847–859 (2010).
Marchitto, T. M., Lynch-Stieglitz, J. & Hemming, S. R. Deep Pacific CaCO3 compensation and glacial–interglacial atmospheric CO2 . Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 231, 317–336 (2005).
Goldstein, S. L. & Hemming, S. H. in Treatise on Geochemistry (ed. Elderfield, H.) 453–489 (Elsevier, 2003).
Lacan, F. & Jeandel, C. Tracing Papua New Guinea imprint on the central Equatorial Pacific Ocean using neodymium isotopic compositions and rare earth element patterns. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 186, 497–512 (2001).
Spero, H. J. & Lea, D. W. The cause of carbon isotope minimum events on glacial terminations. Science 296, 522–525 (2002).
Pena, L. D., Cacho, I., Ferretti, P. & Hall, M. A. El Ninõ—Southern Oscillation—like variability during glacial terminations and interlatitudinal teleconnections. Paleoceanography 23, PA3101 (2008).
Pahnke, K., Goldstein, S. L. & Hemming, S. R. Abrupt changes in Antarctic intermediate water circulation over the past 25,000 years. Nature Geosci. 1, 870–874 (2008).
Grootes, P. & Stuiver, M. Oxygen 18/16 variability in Greenland snow and ice with 10−3 to 105 year time resolution. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 26455–26470 (1997).
Stott, L., Timmermann, A. & Thunell, R. Southern hemisphere and deep-sea warming led deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise and tropical warming. Science 318, 435–438 (2007).
Toggweiler, J. R., Russell, J. L. & Carson, S. R. Midlatitude westerlies, atmospheric CO2, and climate change during the ice ages. Paleoceanography 21, PA2005 (2006).
Galbraith, E. D. et al. Carbon dioxide release from the North Pacific abyss during the last deglaciation. Nature 449, 890–893 (2007).
Okazaki, Y. et al. Deepwater formation in the North Pacific during the last glacial termination. Science 329, 200–204 (2010).
Broecker, W. The mysterious 14C decline. Radiocarbon 51, 109–119 (2009).
De Pol-Holz, R., Keigwin, L., Southon, J., Hebbeln, D. & Mohtadi, M. No signature of abyssal carbon in intermediate waters off Chile during deglaciation. Nature Geosci. 3, 192–195 (2010).
Talley, L.D. in Mechanisms of Global Climate Change at Millennial Time Scales (eds Clark, P. U., Webb, R. S. & Keigwin, L. D.) 1–22 (Geophys. Mono, 1999).
Mangini, A. et al. Deep sea corals off Brazil verify a poorly ventilated Southern Pacific Ocean during H2, H1 and the Younger Dryas. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 293, 269–276 (2010).
Skinner, L. C., Fallon, S., Waelbroeck, C., Michel, E. & Barker, S. Ventilation of the deep southern ocean and deglacial CO2 rise. Science 328, 1147–1151 (2010).
Krebs, U. & Timmermann, A. Tropical air–sea interactions accelerate the recovery of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation after a major shutdown. J. Clim. 20, 4940–4956 (2007).
Kamenov, G., Perfit, M., Mueller, P. A. & Jonasson, I. R. Controls on magmatism in an island arc environment: Study of lavas and sub-arc xenoliths from the Tabar–Lihir–Tanga–Feni island chain, Papua New Guinea. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 155, 635–656 (2008).
Acknowledgements
We thank G. Kamenov for technical support regarding Nd isotope analyses on the Nu Plasma multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer at the University of Florida as well as D. Hodell and D. Newkirk for scientific discussions. The manuscript benefited from comments by A. Piotrowski. We also thank A. van Geen for access to core samples. Core retrieval was supported by NSF grant OCE 98-09026 to A. van Geen and Y. Zheng. Financial support for the research was provided by NSF grant OCE-0623393 to E.E.M. Partial support for this research was also provided by GSA Graduate Student Research grant to C.B.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C.B. and E.E.M. conceived the study. C.B. analysed the Nd isotope data and wrote the paper with the help of all of the co-authors. E.E.M., K.H. and T.M.M. supplied ideas that shaped the final version. All authors contributed towards writing the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 296 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Basak, C., Martin, E., Horikawa, K. et al. Southern Ocean source of 14C-depleted carbon in the North Pacific Ocean during the last deglaciation. Nature Geosci 3, 770–773 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo987
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo987
This article is cited by
-
Thermal coupling of the Indo-Pacific warm pool and Southern Ocean over the past 30,000 years
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Increased Ventilation of the Northern Indian Ocean during the Last Deglaciation
Journal of the Geological Society of India (2020)
-
Equatorial Pacific seawater pCO2 variability since the last glacial period
Scientific Reports (2019)
-
An atmospheric chronology for the glacial-deglacial Eastern Equatorial Pacific
Nature Communications (2018)
-
Extrapolar climate reversal during the last deglaciation
Scientific Reports (2017)