Palaeoceanography articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The contribution of anthropogenic forcing to rising sea levels during the industrial era remains uncertain. Here, the authors provide a probabilistic evaluation and show that at least 45% of global mean sea level rise is of anthropogenic origin.

    • Sönke Dangendorf
    • , Marta Marcos
    •  & Jürgen Jensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elevated deposition of bioavailable atmospheric iron may have enhanced carbon storage in the glacial Southern Ocean. Conwayet al. apply a novel rapid-filtration technique to iron trapped in Antarctic ice cores and show that glacial soluble iron deposition was an order of magnitude greater than the modern.

    • T.M. Conway
    • , E.W. Wolff
    •  & H.E. Elderfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neodymium isotopes are tracers for past and present ocean circulation and biogeochemistry. Here, the authors combine observations of neodymium and radium isotopes in the Amazon estuary and show that the rapid release of neodymium from river suspended sediments leaves a strong imprint on coastal sea water.

    • Tristan C. C. Rousseau
    • , Jeroen E. Sonke
    •  & Catherine Jeandel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Late Pliocene cooling led to the glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere, yet its trigger remains unclear. Here, the authors present neodymium and lead isotope records from the Bering Sea, and propose that the introduction of low-salinity water into the Arctic Ocean preconditioned Pliocene cooling.

    • Keiji Horikawa
    • , Ellen E. Martin
    •  & Kimitaka Kawamura

  • Article |

    Numerous theories exist regarding the evolution of a deep-water oxygen deficiency in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Here, the authors test several popular hypotheses with a focus on the S1 event showing that long-term stagnation was necessary, preconditioned by the changes associated with the last deglaciation.

    • Rosina Grimm
    • , Ernst Maier-Reimer
    •  & Kay-Christian Emeis

  • Article |

    Complex life forms began to emerge during the Precambrian. Here, the authors tie this evolution to an increase in trace metal availability, namely the Mo content of lacustrine shales, suggesting that life evolved in terrestrial and marginal marine environments rather than the Mo-limited deep ocean.

    • John Parnell
    • , Samuel Spinks
    •  & Stephen Bowden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Cambrian explosion of biological diversity has been associated with widespread ocean oxygenation, yet early Cambrian ocean redox conditions remain controversial. Here, the authors present a suite of molybdenum isotope data and show that the ocean was oxygenated to modern-like levels by 521 Ma.

    • Xi Chen
    • , Hong-Fei Ling
    •  & Corey Archer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conditions below the active permafrost layer in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are thought to be ice cemented. Here, the authors use an airborne electromagnetic sensor to image the resistivity beneath the valley floor, which indicates the presence of high-salinity liquids at temperatures well below freezing.

    • J. A. Mikucki
    • , E. Auken
    •  & N. Foley

  • Article |

    The Mertz Glacier Polynya—a site of sea ice production and Antarctic Bottom Water formation—was strongly impacted following the calving of a massive iceberg in 2010. Here, the authors present a 250-year long sea ice reconstruction from the region and present evidence for a ~70-year calving cyclicity.

    • P. Campagne
    • , Xavier Crosta
    •  & G. Massé

  • Article |

    An underlying assumption of palaeoceanographic proxies is that they are representative of the water properties directly above their site of deposition. Here, the authors combine high-resolution particle tracking simulations and sedimentary proxy data to challenge this assumption.

    • Erik van Sebille
    • , Paolo Scussolini
    •  & Rainer Zahn

  • Article |

    Detailed sea-level records beyond ~150,000 years ago are limited. Here, the authors present a radiometrically constrained sea-level record from the Red Sea, spanning five glacial cycles and examine sea-level rise rates and the effects of past global ice-volume changes on monsoon intensity.

    • K. M. Grant
    • , E. J. Rohling
    •  & F. Williams

  • Article |

    The organic geochemical biomarker IP25 has been widely applied in the reconstruction of Arctic sea ice, yet its source remains undetermined. Here, the authors report the identification of IP25in common pan-Arctic sea ice diatoms, thus establishing its applicability as a palaeo Arctic sea ice proxy.

    • T. A. Brown
    • , S. T. Belt
    •  & C. J. Mundy

  • Article |

    Debates on the formation of banded iron formations (BIFs) in ancient iron-rich oceans are dominated by contradictions between biological and non-biological iron cycling. This study provides environmental evidence that directly implicates photosynthetic iron-oxidizing microorganisms in vast-scale BIF deposition.

    • Ernest Chi Fru
    • , Magnus Ivarsson
    •  & Marco Stampanoni

  • Article |

    Calcareous nannofossils were important marine primary producers in Jurassic and Cretaceous oceans at low latitudes. Here, North Sea sediment records reveal that favourable conditions for nannoconids existed also at high latitudes, and nannoconids faced global decline at the onset of greenhouse conditions.

    • Jörg Mutterlose
    •  & Cinzia Bottini

  • Article |

    Clear evidence between sulphidic conditions and denitrification in the Proterozoic ocean should be observable in the rock record. Here, minimalistic biogeochemical modelling shows how periods of extensive sulphate reduction must have gone hand-in-hand with low denitrification and available nitrate.

    • R.A. Boyle
    • , J.R. Clark
    •  & T.M. Lenton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is thought that during the mid-Pliocene warm period the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) must have been stronger than today. Here, using proxy data compilation and simulation, Zhang et al.show that the two observations used to support stronger AMOC may not necessitate its increased strength.

    • Zhongshi Zhang
    • , Kerim H. Nisancioglu
    •  & Ulysses S. Ninnemann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, a semi-periodic variability of sea-surface temperature, is unknown. Knudsenet al.show that 55- to 70-year climate oscillations existed throughout the last 8,000 years, suggesting that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is a permanent feature of the Holocene climate induced by internal ocean variability.

    • Mads Faurschou Knudsen
    • , Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz
    •  & Antoon Kuijpers

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