Millennial-scale climate instabilities in the subtropical Atlantic during MIS 6 and 7

We have constructed a high resolution (~200 year) planktonic foraminiferal stable isotope record spanning Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 and 7 in the subtropical Atlantic (ODP Site 1059). The record fills a gap in a ~1 million year long time series of millennial-scale surface ocean hydrography in this region. Our ultimate goal is to test the hypothesis that millennial-scale climate signals in the northwestern subtropical Atlantic are linked to external driving factors such as the harmonics of precession. Results show that longer-term trends in the oxygen isotope data spanning MIS 6-7 closely follow precessional forcing allowing us to refine the original age model of Grützner et al. (2002). High frequency variations are superimposed on the long-term trend during both the glacial MIS 6 and the interglacial MIS 7. Spectral analyses indicate high concentration of power at millennial-scale periodicities of 10.9 kyr, 5.2 kyr, and 2.8 kyr. These periodicities are close to those expected from harmonics of precessional forcing during this interval of time (11.5 kyr, 5.8 kyr, 2.8 kyr). We will show the evolution of the millennial-scale periodicities in this region over the past 1 million years by splicing the record into published ones and unifying the age model.