Stefan Mulitza

Warming of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and slowdown of thermohaline circulationduring the last deglaciation

Evidence for abrupt climate changes on millennial and shorter timescales is widespread in marine and terrestrial climate records. Rapid reorganization of ocean circulation is considered to exert some control over these changes, as are shifts in the concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. The response of the climate system to these two influences is fundamentally different: slowing of thermohaline overturn in the North Atlantic Ocean is expected to decrease northward heat transport by the ocean and to induce warming of the tropical Atlantic, whereas atmospheric greenhouse forcing should cause roughly synchronous global temperature changes. So these two mechanisms of climate change should be distinguishable by the timing of surface-water temperature variations relative to changes in deep-water circulation. Here we present a high-temporal-resolution record of sea surface temperatures from the western tropical North Atlantic Ocean which spans the past 29,000 years, derived from measurements of temperature-sensitive alkenone unsaturation in sedimentary organic matter. We find significant warming is documented for Heinrich event H1 (16,900–15,400 calendar years bp) and the Younger Dryas event (12,900–11,600 cal. yr bp), which were periods of intense cooling in the northern North Atlantic. Temperature changes in the tropical and high-latitude North Atlantic are out of phase, suggesting that the thermohaline circulation was the important trigger for these rapid climate changes.

The South Atlantic in the Late Quaternary: Reconstruction of Material Budgets and Current Systems

In order to understand current and future patterns of climate variability and change, we need to know how climate varied in the past and which physical forcing mechanisms led to these climatic changes. Direct observations of climate indicators such as temperature and rainfall reach back about 150 years. To extend this observational record, we rely on information from environmental paleoclimatic proxy records that have been extracted from natural archives of past climate variability.

Sahel megadroughts triggered by glacial slowdowns of Atlantic meridional overturning

[1] The influence of the large-scale ocean circulation on Sahel rainfall is elusive because of the shortness of the observational record. We reconstructed the history of eolian and fluvial sedimentation on the continental slope off Senegal during the past 57,000 years. Our data show that abrupt onsets of arid conditions in the West African Sahel were linked to cold North Atlantic sea surface temperatures during times of reduced meridional overturning circulation associated with Heinrich Stadials. Climate modeling suggests that this drying is induced by a southward shift of the West African monsoon trough in conjunction with an intensification and southward expansion of the midtropospheric African Easterly Jet.

Increase in African dust flux at the onset of commercial agriculture in the Sahel region

The Sahara Desert is the largest source of mineral dust in the world. Emissions of African dust increased sharply in the early 1970s (ref. 2), a change that has been attributed mainly to drought in the Sahara/Sahel region caused by changes in the global distribution of sea surface temperature. The human contribution to land degradation and dust mobilization in this region remains poorly understood, owing to the paucity of data that would allow the identification of long-term trends in desertification. Direct measurements of airborne African dust concentrations only became available in the mid-1960s from a station on Barbados and subsequently from satellite imagery since the late 1970s: they do not cover the onset of commercial agriculture in the Sahel region ∼170 years ago. Here we construct a 3,200-year record of dust deposition off northwest Africa by investigating the chemistry and grain-size distribution of terrigenous sediments deposited at a marine site located directly under the West African dust plume. With the help of our dust record and a proxy record for West African precipitation we find that, on the century scale, dust deposition is related to precipitation in tropical West Africa until the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a sharp increase in dust deposition parallels the advent of commercial agriculture in the Sahel region. Our findings suggest that human-induced dust emissions from the Sahel region have contributed to the atmospheric dust load for about 200 years.

Planktonic foraminifera as recorders of past surface-water stratification

The δ 18 O difference between shallow- and deep-living planktonic foraminifera is a proxy for the stratification of surface waters. In Holocene sediments from the Atlantic this difference increases from about 0‰ in subpolar regions to ∼3‰ in the tropics. The δ 18 O values of the shallow dwellers Globigerinoides sacculifer and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma mainly reflect surface-water conditions. The calcification depth of the deep-living species Globorotalia truncatulinoides (right-coiling) is affected by the stratification of the water column. In the subtropics, shell formation of G. truncatulinoides (right-coiling) begins in weakly stratified surface waters. In the tropics, the initial shell is secreted below the mixed layer. This hydrographically induced difference in calcification depth allows the use of the isotopic difference between G. truncatulinoides and the shallow species as a proxy for the stratification of surface waters. The Δδ 18 O between G. truncatulinoides and G. sacculifer from tropical gravity Core GeoB 1523-1 was significantly lower during isotope stage 2. This suggests that the glacial temperature stratification of western equatorial Atlantic surface waters was significantly reduced relative to the Holocene.

Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa

The carbon isotopic composition of individual plant leaf waxes (a proxy for C3 vs. C4 vegetation) in a marine sediment core collected from beneath the plume of Sahara-derived dust in northwest Africa reveals three periods during the past 192,000 years when the central Sahara/Sahel contained C3 plants (likely trees), indicating substantially wetter conditions than at present. Our data suggest that variability in the strength of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a main control on vegetation distribution in central North Africa, and we note expansions of C3 vegetation during the African Humid Period (early Holocene) and within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (≈50–45 ka) and MIS 5 (≈120–110 ka). The wet periods within MIS 3 and 5 coincide with major human migration events out of sub-Saharan Africa. Our results thus suggest that changes in AMOC influenced North African climate and, at times, contributed to amenable conditions in the central Sahara/Sahel, allowing humans to cross this otherwise inhospitable region.

Temperature:δ18O relationships of planktonic foraminifera collected from surface waters

Abstract Most of the isotopic paleotemperature equations used for paleoceanographic reconstructions have been derived from culture experiments or inorganic precipitates of calcium carbonate. To test these equations in the modern ocean, we measured the oxygen isotope composition of planktonic foraminifera (Globigerinoides ruber, Globigerinoides sacculifer, Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma) collected from Atlantic and Southern Ocean surface waters, and added published plankton tow data from the Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans. The resulting species-specific regression equations of the temperature:δ18O relationships for G. ruber, G. sacculifer and G. bulloides are statistically indistinguishable. The equations derived for G. sacculifer and G. bulloides agree with relationships obtained from laboratory experiments, in which these species were cultured at pH values close to modern surface waters. The equation derived from N. pachyderma has a significantly lower slope and offset than the other three species but produces a regression equation that is nearly identical to the one for the epifaunal benthic foraminifer Cibicides sp. Our work on plankton tow and pumped samples indicates that culture-derived equations appear to be more appropriate for predicting the absolute δ18O of the species examined compared to equations derived from inorganic precipitates. However, over the oceanic temperature range, the slopes of the equations we derive for living species agree with the slopes obtained from inorganic precipitates.

Late Quaternary productivity changes in the western equatorial Atlantic: Evidence from 230Th-normalized carbonate and organic carbon accumulation rates

Paleoproductivity changes in the western equatorial Atlantic have been estimated from carbonate and marine organic carbon accumulation for the last 180,000 yr from a Ceara Rise sediment core GeoB 1523-1. Accumulation rates were calculated by normalizing to excess 230Th activity. Paleoproductivity from carbonate accumulation was estimated by a correlation between carbonate and organic carbon fluxes derived from sediment traps deployed in oligotrophic waters. Results indicate minor productivity changes varying around 30 gC m−2 yr−1 for organic carbon-derived estimations and around 45 gC m−2 yr−1 for carbonate-derived estimations, suggesting that the study area remained a low productivity region throughout the time period examined. Maxima in western Atlantic paleoproductivity occurred during the warm substages of glacials and interglacials, in contrast to the eastern tropical Atlantic where maxima are recorded in the cold substages. This contrast might be caused by a deepening of the thermocline and nutricline in the west connected with a synchronous shallowing in the east. The carbonate preservation record was examined for the last 380,000 yr based on variations in percent planktonic foraminiferal fragments and percent coarse fraction. Only minor carbonate dissolution above 3300 m water depth is observed, except for three main dissolution events at isotope stages 4, 8.4 and 10. Considerable carbonate loss during these intervals is attributed to a decreased production of North Atlantic Deep Water which is associated with vertical expansion of Southern-Source Deep Water.

Late Quaternary Surface Circulation of the South Atlantic: The Stable Isotope Record and Implications for Heat Transport and Productivity

The central problem of late Quaternary circulation in the South Atlantic is its role in transfer of heat to the North Atlantic, as this modifies amplitude, and perhaps phase, of glacial- interglacial fluctuations. Here we attempt to define the problem and establish ways to attack it. We identify several crucial elements in the dynamics of heat export: (1) warm-water pile-up (and lack thereof) in the western equatorial Atlantic, (2) general spin-up (or spin-down) of central gyre, tied to SE trades, (3) opening and closing of Cape Valve (Agulhas retroflection), (4) deepwater E-W asymmetry. Means for reconstruction are biogeography, stable isotopes, and productivity proxies. Main results concern overall glacial-interglacial contrast (less pile-up, more spin-up, Cape Valve closed, less NADW during glacial time), dominance of precessional signal in tropics, phase shifts in precessional response. To generate working hypotheses about the dynamics of surface water circulation in the South Atlantic we employ Croll’s paradigm that glacial - interglacial fluctuations are analogous to seasonal fluctuations. Our general picture for the last 300 kyrs is that, as concerns the South Atlantic, intensity of surface water (heat) transport depends on the strength of the SE trades. From various lines of evidence it appears that stronger SE trades appeared during glacials and cold substages during interglacials, analogous to conditions in southern winter (August).

Sea surface temperatures in the equatorial and South Atlantic Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (23–19 ka)

[1] We used planktic foraminiferal assemblages in 70 sediment cores from the tropical and subtropical South Atlantic Ocean (10°N-37°S) to estimate annual mean sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and seasonality for the Last Glacial Maximum with a modified version of the Imbrie-Kipp transfer function method (IKTF) that takes into account the abundance of rare but temperature sensitive species. In contrast to CLIMAP Project Members [1981], the reconstructed SSTs indicate cooler glacial SSTs in the entire tropical/subtropical South Atlantic with strongest cooling in the upwelling region off Namibia (7-10°C) and smallest cooling (1-2°C) in the western subtropical gyre. In the western Atlantic, our data support recent temperature estimates from other proxies. In the upwelling regions in the eastern Atlantic, our data conflict with SST reconstructions from alkenones, which may be due to an environmental preference of the alkenone-producing algae or to an underestimation of foraminiferal SSTs due to anomalous high abundances of N. pachyderma (sinistral).