Clara T. Bolton

Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin

More than 250 plumes of gas bubbles have been discovered emanating from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin, in a depth range of 150-400 m, at and above the present upper limit of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Some of the plumes extend upward to within 50 m of the sea surface. The gas is predominantly methane. Warming of the northward-flowing West Spitsbergen current by 1°C over the last thirty years is likely to have increased the release of methane from the seabed by reducing the extent of the GHSZ, causing the liberation of methane from decomposing hydrate. If this process becomes widespread along Arctic continental margins, tens of Teragrams of methane per year could be released into the ocean.

Eocene global warming events driven by ventilation of oceanic dissolved organic carbon

‘Hyperthermals’ are intervals of rapid, pronounced global warming known from six episodes within the Palaeocene and Eocene epochs (∼65–34 million years (Myr) ago). The most extreme hyperthermal was the ∼170 thousand year (kyr) interval of 5–7 °C global warming during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56 Myr ago). The PETM is widely attributed to massive release of greenhouse gases from buried sedimentary carbon reservoirs, and other, comparatively modest, hyperthermals have also been linked to the release of sedimentary carbon. Here we show, using new 2.4-Myr-long Eocene deep ocean records, that the comparatively modest hyperthermals are much more numerous than previously documented, paced by the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit and have shorter durations (∼40 kyr) and more rapid recovery phases than the PETM. These findings point to the operation of fundamentally different forcing and feedback mechanisms than for the PETM, involving redistribution of carbon among Earth’s readily exchangeable surface reservoirs rather than carbon exhumation from, and subsequent burial back into, the sedimentary reservoir. Specifically, we interpret our records to indicate repeated, large-scale releases of dissolved organic carbon (at least 1,600 gigatonnes) from the ocean by ventilation (strengthened oxidation) of the ocean interior. The rapid recovery of the carbon cycle following each Eocene hyperthermal strongly suggests that carbon was re-sequestered by the ocean, rather than the much slower process of silicate rock weathering proposed for the PETM. Our findings suggest that these pronounced climate warming events were driven not by repeated releases of carbon from buried sedimentary sources, but, rather, by patterns of surficial carbon redistribution familiar from younger intervals of Earth history.

Late Miocene threshold response of marine algae to carbon dioxide limitation

Coccolithophores are marine algae that use carbon for calcification and photosynthesis. The long-term adaptation of these and other marine algae to decreasing carbon dioxide levels during the Cenozoic era has resulted in modern algae capable of actively enhancing carbon dioxide at the site of photosynthesis. This enhancement occurs through the transport of dissolved bicarbonate (HCO3−) and with the help of enzymes whose expression can be modulated by variable aqueous carbon dioxide concentration, [CO2], in laboratory cultures. Coccolithophores preserve the geological history of this adaptation because the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of their calcite plates (coccoliths), which are preserved in the fossil record, are sensitive to active carbon uptake and transport by the cell. Here we use a model of cellular carbon fluxes and show that at low [CO2] the increased demand for HCO3− at the site of photosynthesis results in a diminished allocation of HCO3− to calcification, which is most pronounced in larger cells. This results in a large divergence between the carbon isotopic compositions of small versus large coccoliths only at low [CO2]. Our evaluation of the oxygen and carbon isotope record of size-separated fossil coccoliths reveals that this isotopic divergence first arose during the late Miocene to the earliest Pliocene epoch (about 7–5 million years ago). We interpret this to be a threshold response of the cells’ carbon acquisition strategies to decreasing [CO2]. The documented coccolithophore response is synchronous with a global shift in terrestrial vegetation distribution between 8 and 5 Myr ago, which has been interpreted by some studies as a floral response to decreasing partial pressures of carbon dioxide () in the atmosphere. We infer a global decrease in carbon dioxide levels for this time interval that has not yet been identified in the sparse proxy record but is synchronous with global cooling and progressive glaciations.

Decrease in coccolithophore calcification and CO2 since the middle Miocene

Marine algae are instrumental in carbon cycling and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) regulation. One group, coccolithophores, uses carbon to photosynthesize and to calcify, covering their cells with chalk platelets (coccoliths). How ocean acidification influences coccolithophore calcification is strongly debated, and the effects of carbonate chemistry changes in the geological past are poorly understood. This paper relates degree of coccolith calcification to cellular calcification, and presents the first records of size-normalized coccolith thickness spanning the last 14 Myr from tropical oceans. Degree of calcification was highest in the low-pH, high-CO2 Miocene ocean, but decreased significantly between 6 and 4 Myr ago. Based on this and concurrent trends in a new alkenone ɛp record, we propose that decreasing CO2 partly drove the observed trend via reduced cellular bicarbonate allocation to calcification. This trend reversed in the late Pleistocene despite low CO2, suggesting an additional regulator of calcification such as alkalinity.

Evolution of nutricline dynamics in the equatorial Pacific during the late Pliocene

The tropics have played a central role in modulating Earths climate throughout the Plio?Pleistocene, with tropical productivity fluctuations a key mechanism in the operation of the global carbon cycle and linkage of high? and low?latitude climates. Published records of tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during the Plio?Pleistocene appear to vary primarily in tune with high?latitude climate on both orbital and secular timescales. However, contemporaneous changes in equatorial primary productivity are less well constrained, particularly at sites where climate is not dominated by upwelling or monsoon systems. Furthermore, the role of thermocline dynamics (tilt and mean depth changes) in forcing SST and productivity on orbital timescales remains uncertain. Here we report new, high?resolution calcareous nannofossil records from two Ocean Drilling Program sites in the western and eastern equatorial Pacific during marine isotope stages 95–101, about 2400–2600 kyr ago. Our records of paleoproductivity and nutricline depth reveal synchronous, large?amplitude glacial?interglacial productivity variations at both ends of the equatorial Pacific indicating (1) remote (high?latitude) forcing of primary productivity and (2) no primary role for east–west tilting of the equatorial Pacific thermocline, with important implications regarding the operation of El Nino–like dynamics in the Pliocene Pacific. Instead, the paleoproductivity variations and phase relationships that we document suggest the interaction of two mechanisms operating on obliquity timescales: a “bottom?up” forcing transmitted via the upwelling of high?latitude source waters in conjunction with the “top?down” forcing of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Asian monsoon modulation of nonsteady state diagenesis in hemipelagic marine sediments offshore of Japan

We have identifiedmillennial-scale variations inmagneticmineral diagenesis from Pacific Ocean sediments offshore of Japan that we correlate with changes in organic carbon burial that were likely driven by Asian monsoon fluctuations. The correlation was determined by identifying offsets between the positions of fossil diagenetic fronts and climatically induced variations in organic carbon burial inferred frommagnetic and geochemical analyses. Episodes of intense monsoon activity and attendant sedimentmagneticmineral diagenesis also appear to correlate with Heinrich events, which supports the existence of climatic telecommunications between Asia and the North Atlantic region. Several lines of evidence support our conclusions: (1) fluctuations in down-coremagnetic properties and diagenetic pyrite precipitation are approximately coeval; (2) localized stratigraphic intervals with relatively strongermagneticmineral dissolution are linked to enhanced sedimentary organic carbon contents that gave rise to nonsteady state diagenesis; (3) down-core variations in elemental S content provide a proxy for nonsteady state diagenesis that correlate with key records of Asianmonsoon variations; and (4) relict titanomagnetite that is preserved as inclusions within silicate particles, rather than secondary authigenic phases (e.g., greigite), dominates the strongly diagenetically altered sediment intervals and are protected against sulfidic dissolution.We suggest that such millennial-scale environmentalmodulation of nonsteady state diagenesis (that creates a temporal diagenetic filter and relict magneticmineral signatures) is likely to be common in organic-rich hemipelagic sedimentary settingswith rapidly varying depositional conditions. Ourwork also demonstrates the usefulness of magnetic mineral inclusions for recording important environmentalmagnetic signals.

Effects of midlatitude westerlies on the paleoproductivity at the Agulhas Bank slope during the penultimate glacial cycle: Evidence from coccolith Sr/Ca ratios

Modern primary productivity on the Agulhas Bank, off South Africa, has been proposed to be linked to the midlatitude westerlies. A paleoproductivity record from this area may therefore resolve temporal changes in the westerly dynamics. Accordingly, we produced a coccolith Sr/Ca-based paleoproductivity record from core MD96-2080 (Agulhas Bank slope) during the penultimate glacial-interglacial cycle. Deriving the productivity signal from Sr/Ca requires a correction for a temperature effect, here constrained using Mg/Ca sea surface temperatures from the foraminifer Globigerina bulloides from core MD96-2080. Phases of depressed productivity coincided with periods of stratification in the same core, indicated by high relative abundances of the coccolithophore Florisphaera profunda and with low relative abundances of the upwelling indicator G. bulloides in the nearby Cape Basin. These observations collectively suggest that productivity was regulated by upwelling throughout this region. We infer that, as in the present, periods of low productivity result from a more northerly position of the westerlies, potentially accompanied by subtropical front displacements, and blockage of upwelling promoting easterlies. Productivity minima also coincide with periods of increased ice-rafted detritus (IRD) deposition on the Agulhas Plateau, which also indicates extreme northward positions of the westerlies. The influence of the westerlies appears to be obliquity conditioned, as productivity minima (and IRD maxima) occur during low-obliquity intervals. The dynamic connection between productivity and the westerlies is supported by coeval salinity changes in the South Indian Gyre that likewise respond sensitively to a poleward contraction of the westerlies.

Plio-Pleistocene glacial-interglacial productivity changes in the eastern equatorial Pacific upwelling system

The eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean (EEP) upwelling system supports >10% of the present-day global ocean primary production, making it an important component in Earths atmospheric and marine carbon budget. Traditionally, it has been argued that since intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation (iNHG, ~2.7?Ma), changes in EEP productivity have predominantly depended on trade wind strength-controlled upwelling intensity. An alternative hypothesis suggests that EEP productivity is primarily controlled by nutrient supply from the high southern latitudes via mode waters. Here we present new high-resolution data for the latest Pliocene/early Pleistocene from Ocean Drilling Program Site 849, located within the equatorial divergence system in the heart of the EEP upwelling regime. We use carbon isotopes in benthic and planktic foraminiferal calcite and sand accumulation rates to investigate glacial-interglacial (G-IG) productivity fluctuations between 2.65 and 2.4?Ma (marine isotope stages (MIS) G1 to 94). This interval includes MIS 100, 98, and 96, three large-amplitude glacials (~1‰ in benthic ?18O) representing the culmination of iNHG. Our results suggest that latest Pliocene/early Pleistocene G-IG productivity changes in the EEP were strongly controlled by nutrient supply from Southern Ocean-sourced mode waters. Our records show a clear G-IG cyclicity from MIS 100 onward with productivity levels increasing from full glacial conditions and peaking at glacial terminations. We conclude that enhanced nutrient delivery from high southern latitudes during full glacial conditions together with superimposed intensified regional upwelling toward glacial terminations strongly regulated primary productivity rates in the EEP from MIS 100 onward.