Long-term variability of iron supply, marine export production, and sea surface temperature in the subantarctic Atlantic, implications for atmospheric CO2
Abstract
Paleoclimatic reconstructions have provided a unique dataset to test the sensitivity of climate system to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, the mechanisms behind glacial/interglacial (G/IG) variations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations observed in the Antarctic ice cores over the last 800 ky are still not completely understood. Here we present a multiproxy dataset of sea surface temperatures (SST), dust and iron supply, and marine export production, from the marine sediment core PS2489-2/ODP Site 1090 located in the subantarctic Atlantic (SA). This dataset allows us to evaluate various hypotheses focussing on the role of the Southern Ocean (SO) in modulating atmospheric CO2 over the last 800ky, and provides new information on SST, dust, and export production back to the Pliocene. The close correlation observed between iron inputs and marine export production in our record suggests that the process of iron fertilization has been a recurrent process operating in the SA over the G/IG cycles of the last 1.1 My. However, our data indicates that marine productivity in the present Subantarctic Zone can only explain a fraction of atmospheric CO2 changes occurring at glacial maxima in each glacial stage. Moreover, the good correlation of our SST to the EPICA Dome C records (EDC) temperature reconstruction over the last 800ka, suggest that physical processes, possibly related to changes in Antarctic sea-ice extent, surface water stratification and westerly winds position have also played an important role in modulating atmospheric CO2 over the last 800ky. On the long-term, our paleo-SST record reveals a major cooling event around 1.2-1.5 Ma that may have caused a profound impact on atmospheric CO2 and hence in the transition to a 100 kyr world during the Middle Pleistocene Climatic Transition.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMPP41D1499M
- Keywords:
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- 4806 Carbon cycling (0428);
- 4845 Nutrients and nutrient cycling (0470;
- 1050);
- 4912 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling (0412;
- 0414;
- 0793;
- 1615;
- 4805);
- 4930 Greenhouse gases;
- 4954 Sea surface temperature