A radiocarbon spike at 14 300 cal yr BP in subfossil trees provides the impulse response function of the global carbon cycle during the Late Glacial.

We present new 14C results measured on subfossil Scots Pines recovered in the eroded banks of the Drouzet watercourse in the Southern French Alps. About 400 new 14C ages have been analysed on 15 trees sampled at annual resolution. The resulting Δ14C record exhibits an abrupt spike occurring in a single year at 14 300-14 299 cal yr BP and a century-long event between 14 and 13.9 cal kyr BP. In order to identify the causes of these events, we compare the Drouzet Δ14C record with simulations of Δ14C based on the 10Be record in Greenland ice used as an input of a carbon cycle model. The correspondence with 10Be anomalies allows us to propose the 14.3 cal kyr BP event as a solar energetic particle event. By contrast, the 14 cal kyr BP event lasted about a century and is most probably a common Maunder-type solar minimum linked to the modulation of galactic cosmic particles by the heliomagnetic field. We also discuss and speculate about the synchroneity and the possible causes of the 14 cal kyr BP event with the brief cold phase called Older Dryas, which separates the Bølling and Allerød millennium-long warm phases of the Late Glacial period. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Radiocarbon in the Anthropocene'.

Shut down of the South American summer monsoon during the penultimate glacial.

We analysed changes in mean annual air temperature (MAAT), vegetation and biomass burning on a long and continuous lake-peat sediment record from the Colônia basin, southeastern Brazil, examining the responses of a wet tropical rainforest over the last 180 ka. Stronger southern atmospheric circulation up to the latitude of Colônia was found for the penultimate glacial with lower temperatures than during the last glacial, while strengthening of the South American summer monsoon (SASM) circulation started during the last interglacial and progressively enhanced a longer wet summer season from 95 ka until the present. Past MAAT variations and fire history were possibly modulated by eccentricity, although with signatures which differ in average and in amplitude between the last 180 ka. Vegetation responses were driven by the interplay between the SASM and southern circulation linked to Antarctic ice volume, inferred by the presence of a cool mixed evergreen forest from 180 to 45 ka progressively replaced by a rainforest. We report cooler temperatures during the marine isotope stage 3 (MIS 3: 57-29 ka) than during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 23-19 ka). Our findings show that tropical forest dynamics display different patterns than mid-latitude during the last 180 ka.

Abrupt drainage cycles of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet.

Continental ice sheets are a key component of the Earth's climate system, but their internal dynamics need to be further studied. Since the last deglaciation, the northern Eurasian Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) has been connected to the Black Sea (BS) watershed, making this basin a suitable location to investigate former ice-sheet dynamics. Here, from a core retrieved in the BS, we combine the use of neodymium isotopes, high-resolution elemental analysis, and biomarkers to trace changes in sediment provenance and river runoff. We reveal cyclic releases of meltwater originating from Lake Disna, a proglacial lake linked to the FIS during Heinrich Stadial 1. Regional interactions within the climate-lake-FIS system, linked to changes in the availability of subglacial water, led to abrupt drainage cycles of the FIS into the BS watershed. This phenomenon raised the BS water level by ∼100 m until the sill of the Bosphorus Strait was reached, flooding the vast northwestern BS shelf and deeply affecting the hydrology and circulation of the BS and, probably, of the Marmara and Aegean Seas.

Moisture transport across Central America as a positive feedback on abrupt climatic changes.

Moisture transport from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean across Central America leads to relatively high salinities in the North Atlantic Ocean and contributes to the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water. This deep water formation varied strongly between Dansgaard/Oeschger interstadials and Heinrich events-millennial-scale abrupt warm and cold events, respectively, during the last glacial period. Increases in the moisture transport across Central America have been proposed to coincide with northerly shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and with Dansgaard/Oeschger interstadials, with opposite changes for Heinrich events. Here we reconstruct sea surface salinities in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean over the past 90,000 years by comparing palaeotemperature estimates from alkenones and Mg/Ca ratios with foraminiferal oxygen isotope ratios that vary with both temperature and salinity. We detect millennial-scale fluctuations of sea surface salinities in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean of up to two to four practical salinity units. High salinities are associated with the southward migration of the tropical Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone, coinciding with Heinrich events and with Greenland stadials. The amplitudes of these salinity variations are significantly larger on the Pacific side of the Panama isthmus, as inferred from a comparison of our data with a palaeoclimate record from the Caribbean basin. We conclude that millennial-scale fluctuations of moisture transport constitute an important feedback mechanism for abrupt climate changes, modulating the North Atlantic freshwater budget and hence North Atlantic Deep Water formation.

Early reactivation of European rivers during the last deglaciation.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the sea-level lowstand combined with the large extent of the Fennoscandian and British ice sheets led to the funneling of European continental runoff, resulting in the largest river system that ever drained the European continent. Here, we show an abrupt and early reactivation of the European hydrological cycle at the onset of the last deglaciation, leading to intense discharge of the Channel River into the Bay of Biscay. This freshwater influx, probably combined with inputs from proglacial or ice-dammed lakes, dramatically affected the hydrology of the region, both on land and in the ocean.