High-resolution deep Northeast Pacific radiocarbon record shows little change in ventilation rate during the last deglaciation

The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the last deglaciation is thought to be driven by release of carbon sequestered in the abyssal ocean. This mechanism requires a poorly ventilated deep Pacific during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and enhanced ventilation during the deglaciation. Here we evaluate the plausibility of this scenario using planktonic and benthic foraminiferal radiocarbon data from a high-sedimentation rate core (~25 cm/kyr) collected in the deep (2700 m) Northeast Pacific. We estimate that the mean benthic-planktonic (B-P) age was 1620±190 years during the LGM (n=10 pairs). This value is indistinguishable from the mean B-P difference for the deglaciation (1500±230; n=20 pairs) and the difference between surface and deep water 14C ages today (1560±70 years). Furthermore, our time series of benthic Δ14C parallels atmospheric Δ14C with an offset of 300±50‰ from 22 to 10 kyr BP. These data suggest the ventilation rate of the deep NE Pacific remained nearly constant during the deglaciation, consistent with lower resolution data from this region (Okazaki et al., 2010). Between 22 and 16 kyr BP, Δ14C in the deep NE Pacific varied between 0 and 100‰, well above the -200‰ values estimated at intermediate depths off of Baja California during the Mystery Interval (Marchitto et al., 2007). The deep NE Pacific apparently did not contain water of adequate age to source deglacial Δ14C anomalies shallower in the water column. Given that Antarctic Intermediate Water is also an unlikely source (de Pol-Holz et al., 2010; Rose et al., 2010), an alternative explanation is necessary for the extreme 14C depletions in the eastern tropical Pacific. De Pol-Holz, R. D., et al. 2010. No signature of abyssal carbon in intermediate waters off Chile during deglaciation. Nature Geoscience 3, 192-195. Marchitto, T., Lehman, S., Ortiz, J., Fluckiger, J. & van Geen, A. 2007. Marine radiocarbon evidence for the mechanism of deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise. Science 316, 1456-1459. Okazaki et al. 2010. Deepwater formation in the North Pacific during the Last Glacial Termination. Science 329, 200-204. Rose, K. A., et al. 2010. Upper-ocean-to-atmosphere offsets imply fast deglacial radiocarbon release, Nature 466, 1093-1097.