Causes of ice age intensification across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.

During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 1,200-800 kya), Earth's orbitally paced ice age cycles intensified, lengthened from ∼40,000 (∼40 ky) to ∼100 ky, and became distinctly asymmetrical. Testing hypotheses that implicate changing atmospheric CO2 levels as a driver of the MPT has proven difficult with available observations. Here, we use orbitally resolved, boron isotope CO2 data to show that the glacial to interglacial CO2 difference increased from ∼43 to ∼75 µatm across the MPT, mainly because of lower glacial CO2 levels. Through carbon cycle modeling, we attribute this decline primarily to the initiation of substantive dust-borne iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean during peak glacial stages. We also observe a twofold steepening of the relationship between sea level and CO2-related climate forcing that is suggestive of a change in the dynamics that govern ice sheet stability, such as that expected from the removal of subglacial regolith or interhemispheric ice sheet phase-locking. We argue that neither ice sheet dynamics nor CO2 change in isolation can explain the MPT. Instead, we infer that the MPT was initiated by a change in ice sheet dynamics and that longer and deeper post-MPT ice ages were sustained by carbon cycle feedbacks related to dust fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a consequence of larger ice sheets.

Changes in North Atlantic nitrogen fixation controlled by ocean circulation.

In the ocean, the chemical forms of nitrogen that are readily available for biological use (known collectively as 'fixed' nitrogen) fuel the global phytoplankton productivity that exports carbon to the deep ocean. Accordingly, variation in the oceanic fixed nitrogen reservoir has been proposed as a cause of glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Marine nitrogen fixation, which produces most of the ocean's fixed nitrogen, is thought to be affected by multiple factors, including ocean temperature and the availability of iron and phosphorus. Here we reconstruct changes in North Atlantic nitrogen fixation over the past 160,000 years from the shell-bound nitrogen isotope ratio ((15)N/(14)N) of planktonic foraminifera in Caribbean Sea sediments. The observed changes cannot be explained by reconstructed changes in temperature, the supply of (iron-bearing) dust or water column denitrification. We identify a strong, roughly 23,000-year cycle in nitrogen fixation and suggest that it is a response to orbitally driven changes in equatorial Atlantic upwelling, which imports 'excess' phosphorus (phosphorus in stoichiometric excess of fixed nitrogen) into the tropical North Atlantic surface. In addition, we find that nitrogen fixation was reduced during glacial stages 6 and 4, when North Atlantic Deep Water had shoaled to become glacial North Atlantic intermediate water, which isolated the Atlantic thermocline from excess phosphorus-rich mid-depth waters that today enter from the Southern Ocean. Although modern studies have yielded diverse views of the controls on nitrogen fixation, our palaeobiogeochemical data suggest that excess phosphorus is the master variable in the North Atlantic Ocean and indicate that the variations in its supply over the most recent glacial cycle were dominated by the response of regional ocean circulation to the orbital cycles.

The polar ocean and glacial cycles in atmospheric CO(2) concentration.

Global climate and the atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide () are correlated over recent glacial cycles, with lower during ice ages, but the causes of the changes are unknown. The modern Southern Ocean releases deeply sequestered CO(2) to the atmosphere. Growing evidence suggests that the Southern Ocean CO(2) 'leak' was stemmed during ice ages, increasing ocean CO(2) storage. Such a change would also have made the global ocean more alkaline, driving additional ocean CO(2) uptake. This explanation for lower ice-age , if correct, has much to teach us about the controls on current ocean processes.

Subglacial precipitates record Antarctic ice sheet response to late Pleistocene millennial climate cycles.

Ice cores and offshore sedimentary records demonstrate enhanced ice loss along Antarctic coastal margins during millennial-scale warm intervals within the last glacial termination. However, the distal location and short temporal coverage of these records leads to uncertainty in both the spatial footprint of ice loss, and whether millennial-scale ice response occurs outside of glacial terminations. Here we present a >100kyr archive of periodic transitions in subglacial precipitate mineralogy that are synchronous with Late Pleistocene millennial-scale climate cycles. Geochemical and geochronologic data provide evidence for opal formation during cold periods via cryoconcentration of subglacial brine, and calcite formation during warm periods through the addition of subglacial meltwater originating from the ice sheet interior. These freeze-flush cycles represent cyclic changes in subglacial hydrologic-connectivity driven by ice sheet velocity fluctuations. Our findings imply that oscillating Southern Ocean temperatures drive a dynamic response in the Antarctic ice sheet on millennial timescales, regardless of the background climate state.

Global reorganization of deep-sea circulation and carbon storage after the last ice age.

Using new and published marine fossil radiocarbon (14C/C) measurements, a tracer uniquely sensitive to circulation and air-sea gas exchange, we establish several benchmarks for Atlantic, Southern, and Pacific deep-sea circulation and ventilation since the last ice age. We find the most 14C-depleted water in glacial Pacific bottom depths, rather than the mid-depths as they are today, which is best explained by a slowdown in glacial deep-sea overturning in addition to a "flipped" glacial Pacific overturning configuration. These observations cannot be produced by changes in air-sea gas exchange alone, and they underscore the major role for changes in the overturning circulation for glacial deep-sea carbon storage in the vast Pacific abyss and the concomitant drawdown of atmospheric CO2.

A 35-million-year record of seawater stable Sr isotopes reveals a fluctuating global carbon cycle.

Changes in the concentration and isotopic composition of the major constituents in seawater reflect changes in their sources and sinks. Because many of the processes controlling these sources and sinks are tied to the cycling of carbon, such records can provide insights into what drives past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate. Here, we present a stable strontium (Sr) isotope record derived from pelagic marine barite. Our δ88/86Sr record exhibits a complex pattern, first declining between 35 and 15 million years ago (Ma), then increasing from 15 to 5 Ma, before declining again from ~5 Ma to the present. Numerical modeling reveals that the associated fluctuations in seawater Sr concentrations are about ±25% relative to present-day seawater. We interpret the δ88/86Sr data as reflecting changes in the mineralogy and burial location of biogenic carbonates.

The silicon cycle impacted by past ice sheets.

Globally averaged riverine silicon (Si) concentrations and isotope composition (δ30Si) may be affected by the expansion and retreat of large ice sheets during glacial-interglacial cycles. Here we provide evidence of this based on the δ30Si composition of meltwater runoff from a Greenland Ice Sheet catchment. Glacier runoff has the lightest δ30Si measured in running waters (-0.25 ± 0.12‰), significantly lower than nonglacial rivers (1.25 ± 0.68‰), such that the overall decline in glacial runoff since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) may explain 0.06-0.17‰ of the observed ocean δ30Si rise (0.5-1.0‰). A marine sediment core proximal to Iceland provides further evidence for transient, low-δ30Si meltwater pulses during glacial termination. Diatom Si uptake during the LGM was likely similar to present day due to an expanded Si inventory, which raises the possibility of a feedback between ice sheet expansion, enhanced Si export to the ocean and reduced CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, because of the importance of diatoms in the biological carbon pump.