Ice-core measurements show diverse atmospheric CO₂ variations – increasing, decreasing or remaining stable – during millennial-scale North Atlantic cold periods called stadials. The reasons for these contrasting trends remain elusive. Ventilation of carbon-rich deep oceans can profoundly affect atmospheric CO₂, but its millennial-scale history is poorly constrained. In this study, I will show a high-resolution deep-water acidity record from the Iberian Margin in the North Atlantic, a unique setting that allows us to construct a robust chronology for confident comparisons between marine and ice-core records. The new data combined with ice-core CO₂ records reveal multiple ocean ventilation modes involving an interplay of the two polar regions, rather than by the Southern Ocean alone. These modes governed past deep-sea carbon storage and thereby atmospheric CO₂ variations on millennial timescales. Overall, our record suggests a bipolar control on millennial atmospheric CO₂ changes during the past glacial cycle.

How to cite: Yu, J., Anderson, R., Jin, Z., Ji, X., Thornalley, D., Wu, L., Thouveny, N., Cai, Y., Tan, L., Zhang, F., Menviel, L., Tian, J., Xie, X., Rohling, E., and McManus, J.: Bipolar control on millennial atmospheric CO2 changes over the past glacial cycle, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-9143, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9143, 2024.

Carbon cycle models used to interpret the IntCal20 compilation of atmospheric Δ¹⁴C have so far neglected a key aspect of the millennial-scale variability connected with the thermal bipolar seesaw: changes in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) related to Dansgaard/Oeschger and Heinrich events. Here we implement such AMOC changes in the carbon cycle box model BICYCLE-SE to investigate how model performance over the last 55 kyr is affected, in particular with respect to available ¹⁴C and CO₂ data. Constraints from deep ocean ¹⁴C suggest that the AMOC in the model during Heinrich stadial 1 needs to be highly reduced or even completely shutdown. Ocean circulation and sea ice coverage combined are the processes that almost completely explain modelled changes in deep ocean ¹⁴C age, and these are also responsible for a glacial drawdown of ~60 ppm of atmospheric CO₂. A further CO₂ drawdown of ~25 ppm is caused by the colder ocean surface at the last glacial maximum. We find that the implementation of AMOC changes in the model setup that was previously used for the calculation of the non-polar mean surface marine reservoir age, Marine20, leads to differences of less than ±100 ¹⁴C years. The representation of AMOC changes therefore appears to be of minor importance for deriving mean ocean radiocarbon calibration products such as Marine20, where atmospheric carbon cycle variables are forced by reconstructions. However, simulated atmospheric CO₂ exhibits minima during AMOC reductions in Heinrich stadials, in disagreement with ice core data. This mismatch supports previous suggestions that millennial-scale changes in CO₂ were probably mainly driven by biological and physical processes in the Southern Ocean. By modifying the ¹⁴C production rate (Q), between one that varies so as to fit simulated atmospheric ∆14C to IntCal20 and an alternative constant Q, we can furthermore show that in our model setup the variability in deep ocean 14C age, especially during the Bølling/Allerød—Younger Dryas—Early Holocene climate transition, has its root cause in the carbon cycle, while a Q that achieves agreement with the IntCal20 atmospheric ∆14C record only enhances deep ocean age anomalies and thus optimizes agreement with the benthic 14C data.

How to cite: Köhler, P., Skinner, L., and Adolphi, F.: Simulated radiocarbon cycle revisited by considering the bipolar seesaw and benthic 14C data, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-5549, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5549, 2024.

The ability of the deep ocean to store and exchange large quantities of CO₂ with the atmosphere on relatively short timescales means that it is thought to play a key role in dictating glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric CO₂, however records of deep ocean carbon storage and release remain sparse. The Pacific Ocean contains the largest store of carbon in the ocean-atmosphere system. As a result, changes in its circulation dynamics and biogeochemistry have the potential to significantly impact global climate. Despite this, changes in Pacific conditions and carbon storage over the last glacial cycle are poorly constrained.

Here we present new geochemical proxy records from abyssal, deep, and intermediate depths in the Southwestern Pacific to determine the changes in deep ocean carbon storage over the last glacial cycle and the mechanisms involved in driving these changes. Foraminiferal trace element and stable isotope data indicate that increased carbon storage occurred over the course of the last glaciation, promoting a drawdown in atmospheric CO₂. The processes involved in driving glacial ocean carbon storage are debated, however proxy data from these sites indicate that changes in circulation dynamics promoting the isolation and expansion of deep Pacific waters was likely a key process involved. Comparison of δ¹³C data to box model and Earth system model output provides further insight into the physical as well as biogeochemical mechanisms involved and their relative contributions at different stages over the last glacial cycle. This includes the role of Southern Ocean sea-ice expansion, reduced ocean temperatures, and increased Southern Ocean stratification and biological productivity. We find that physical processes dominate the early in the glacial cycle, with biological processes promoting further drawdown as glacial conditions intensify. These results help to improve the understanding of deep ocean carbon cycling over the last glacial cycle and provide a new framework with which to interpret proxy δ¹³C data.

How to cite: Pelly, M., Shankle, M., Trudgill, M., Millet, B., Xu, C., Owens, G., Owen, H., Foreman, A., Bauska, T., Ridgwell, A., Michel, E., Gray, W., Burke, A., and Rae, J.: Physical and biological controls on deep Pacific carbon storage over the last glacial cycle, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-17778, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-17778, 2024.

Despite decades of research, the cause of glacial-interglacial CO₂ cycles is not fully understood, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of Earth’s climate system. One hypothesis is that shoaling of the boundary between Northern Source Water (NSW) and Southern Source Water (SSW) enhanced oceanic carbon sequestration during glacial intervals, resulting in lower atmospheric pCO₂. To test this hypothesis, we generated vertical profiles of [CO₃^2-], δ¹³C, and δ¹⁸O using a depth transect of cores from the Brazil Margin, focusing on the two major drops in atmospheric pCO₂ during the last glacial cycle at ~115 ka and ~70 ka. Given that [CO₃^2-] is inversely related to the concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon, [CO₃^2-] should decrease if the Atlantic sequestered CO₂. We observe no significant change in the [CO₃^2-] across the first decrease in atmospheric pCO₂ and no evidence for watermass boundary shoaling in the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O profiles.  [CO₃^2-] decreased only at ~3600 m, the core site most influenced by SSW.  During the second pCO₂ decline at ~70 ka, [CO₃^2-] decreased by ~30 µmol/kg below 2000 m water depth, coincident with marked shoaling in the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O profiles. The lack of evidence for shoaling and deep Atlantic carbon sequestration at ~115 ka, a time of intermediate ice sheet extent and moderate global cooling, but the clear evidence for shoaling and carbon sequestration at ~70 ka, a time of near glacial maximum ice sheet extent, implies that the deep Atlantic’s capacity to store carbon depends on the Earth’s mean climate state. Our results highlight that distinct mechanisms are necessary to explain the two major drops in atmospheric pCO₂ of the last glacial cycle. 

How to cite: Garity, M. and Lund, D.: Investigating oceanic carbon sequestration during glacial inception using vertical profiles of [CO32-], d13C, and d18O from the Southwest Atlantic, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-12112, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12112, 2024.

Erosion of continental rocks controls nutrient and sediment supply, soil formation and global climate. Intensity of this land-surface process is driven by both climatic (runoff, and temperature) and non-climatic (vegetation, lithology and basin slope) factors. Additionally, climatic-driven fluctuations in sea-level may also influence the exposed land-area, which is available for weathering. The coupling between exposed shelf sediments and weathering, however, has received limited attention. In this contribution, geochemical and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions of a sediment core (VM29-17PC) from the western Bay of Bengal have been investigated to reconstruct weathering and climate interaction during last glacial-interglacial cycle. Radiocarbon dating of foraminifera samples establishes that the core preserves a continuous erosional record for last 35 kyr.  Average Sr-Nd isotopic data for the decarbonated sediments confirm dominant sediment supply from the Higher Himalaya to the core site, with sub-ordinate input from the Deccan region. Temporal changes in the isotopic data hint at a sudden increase in the Himalayan source around 15 kyr BP, which is synchronous with the Bølling-Allerød (B/A) warm phase and the strengthening of the south-west (SW) monsoon. Downcore variation of Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) and K/Al ratios indicates intensification of chemical weathering around 25 kyr BP. This change in weathering intensity is synchronous to dropping of sea level due to onset of glaciation. This sea-level regression and sudden rise in CaCO₃ concentration during this period point to weathering of additional surface exposed in the shelf regions. This enhanced weathering of the shelf sediments may have contributed to the atmospheric CO₂ level during the glacial period.

How to cite: Tripathy, G. R., Negi, P., Rout, R. K., and Bhushan, R.: Weathering of shelf sediments exposed during a glacial period: Evidence from geochemistry and Sr-Nd isotopes, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-14346, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14346, 2024.

Ice core archives allow us to retrieve the atmospheric CO₂ concentration of the past 800,000 years characterized by periodically lower and higher CO₂ levels corresponding to ice ages and interglacials, respectively. However, there is no broadly accepted consensus regarding the leading drivers of such variability. To a large extent, what prevents us from identifying the mechanisms that underlie changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations is our inability to split the overall atmospheric CO₂ budget into its sources and sinks terms, thereby assessing the fluxes of carbon among different reservoirs. Here, we use a reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (rj-McMC) algorithm to invert the atmospheric CO₂ concentration dataset provided by the EPICA ice core based on a general forward formulation of the geological carbon cycle. We can quantify the most likely temporal variability of atmospheric carbon fluxes in ppm/yr throughout the last 800,000 years. Results suggest that temperature changes have been driving the variations of atmospheric CO₂ until the Mid-Brunhes Event (MBE), when the onset of a progressive cyclic increase of  the atmospheric carbon fluxes marks a distinct behavioral change of the climate system. We ascribe such change to mechanisms internal to the Earth system, possibly related to the deglacial triggering of global volcanism and associated feedbacks on climate or a combination of geological, biological, and physical processes. Regardless, our unprecedented quantification of past atmospheric input and output CO₂ fluxes provide (1) new constraints for climate carbon cycle and paleoclimate models to assess dominant climate-driving mechanisms, and (2) the benchmark for climate models intercomparison projects and better assessing the anthropogenic perturbation to the geological carbon cycle an associated climatic effect.

How to cite: Castrogiovanni, L., Sternai, P., Pasquero, C., and Piana Agostinetti, N.: Input and output fluxes of surface CO2 over the Late Quaternary, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-1026, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-1026, 2024.

The critical role of the Southern Ocean in controlling the Pleistocene atmospheric CO₂ oscillations is widely acknowledged. However, owing to sampling difficulties surrounding Antarctica, the underlying mechanism and associated pathway of ocean-atmosphere CO₂ exchange in the Antarctic Zone (AZ) of the Southern Ocean remains mysterious. Here, we present a new planktonic δ¹¹B record from sediment core PS1506 (68.73°S, 5.85°W) that tracks the pH and surface pCO₂ of the AZ over the last 8 glacial cycles. These data are complemented by benthic B/Ca and carbonate preservation indices; due to the location of this core on the continental margin of the eastern Weddell Sea, these data allow us to track the source CO₂ chemistry of the dense Antarctic waters that feed the ocean’s lower overturing cell. We find coherent CO₂ change between surface and deep waters, indicating persistent formation of AABW that transfers Antarctic surface water signals to depth. Critically, we discover abrupt AZ CO₂ decline during glacial onset conditions, coinciding with initial atmospheric CO₂ drawdown, highlighting the AZ’s key control on glacial-interglacial CO₂ change. After assessing proposed drivers, our findings implicate shifts in Southern Ocean circulation linked to changes in sea ice and/or the Southern Hemisphere westerlies in this glacial onset CO₂ change, while productivity, solubility, and sea ice 'lid' effects appear insignificant or counterproductive in this region and time interval. Overall, these reconstructed CO₂ system dynamics provide critical insights into Southern Ocean carbon cycling and the associated influence on the atmosphere.

How to cite: Xu, C., Crumpton-Banks, J., Shankle, M., Pelly, M., Jurikova, H., Yu, J., Opdyke, B., Hillenbrand, C.-D., Burke, A., and Rae, J.: The Southern Ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle over the last 800 kyr constrained using reconstructions of the CO2 system, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-7296, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-7296, 2024.

The deep Southern Ocean (SO) circulation is of major significance for the understanding of the ocean´s impact on Earth’s climate as uptake and release of CO₂ strongly depend on the redistribution of well and poorly ventilated water masses.

Neodymium isotopes (εNd) preserved in deep sea sediment have proven useful to study the Deep Ocean Circulation and water mass provenance and are of special interest over major climate changes as the Mid Pleistocene Transition (MPT). The MPT marks the change from a 41 ka to a 100 ka glacial-interglacial cyclicity and goes along with a significant intrusion of southern sourced waters (SSW) in the deep North Atlantic.

Here, we present the first millennial resolved authigenic εNd data in the Southern Atlantic spanning across  the MPT of a deep sea sediment core positioned at the polar front. The pre-MPT εNd values of ODP 1093 show a small variability of approx. 2 ε-units around the modern AABW signature of -8. In contrast, the post-MPT εNd variability increases to 6 ε-units with glacial extremes of around -3 – εNd values that can not be found in any Atlantic sourced water mass today!

This supports not only the exsiting hypotesis of stonger SSW export to the North, but rather advocates for a radiogenic  watermass influencing the flow regime in the Atlantic south of the polar front. Increasing ice volume during post-MPT glacials has been argued to lead to a reduced AABW production. Due to continuity of flow, this opens up the possiblity of glacial intrusion through the Drake passage of a water masses likely originating in the Pacific, which would generate  the strongly radiogenic glacial εNd values. At present Pacific deep waters are enriched with respired carbon. Assuming this to hold true in the past, the intrusion of such carbon rich water masses into the deep South Atlantic could further reinforce the strong glacials and the overall global cooling trend after the MPT as suggested previously.

Hence, the SO south of the polar front played a leading role in  reinjecting respired CO₂ into the deep Atlantic Ocean and the Atmosphere during climate transitions. 

How to cite: Rückert, E. M. and Frank, N.: Significant change in the flow regime in the deep Southern Ocean through the MPT, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-14929, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14929, 2024.

Reduced ice volume during interglacials is hypothesized to amplify volcanic activity because ice-mass removal reduces pressure on magma chambers (Huybers & Langmuir, 2009). There is some evidence for this process occurring on regional (Maclennan et al., 2002) and perhaps semi-global scales (Kutterolf et al., 2019), but there is a lack of globally representative tephra production records. Therefore, our understanding of the global relationship between glacial-interglacial cycles and volcanism uncertain. As a result, we do not know whether deglaciation directly drives enhanced volcanism, or if the feedbacks are more complex. In this work we use a database of visible tephra layers in marine sediments, and a weighted bootstrap resampling method to develop a record of global tephra (the products of explosive volcanism) production which covers the past million years.

Our results show an intensification of global tephra production around 420 to 400 thousand years ago (ka), which coincides with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 – the warmest interglacial of the past million years. MIS11 was a period of high sea level (up to 10 m above present) and low ice cover, with Greenland likely largely ice free. We suggest the low ice levels drove enhanced volcanism, and consequently enhanced volcanic carbon dioxide degassing, which in turn drove further ice sheet ablation. This positive feedback may the explain this warmth, and in turn, the Mid-Brunhes transition, which heralded the arrival of generally warmer interglacials after 400 ka. Further, after 400 ka we begin to see cyclicity in the tephra record, mirroring eccentricity forcing seen in ice volume records. More pronounced ice-volcano feedbacks may therefore explain the stronger interglacials of the past 400,000 years.

References

Huybers, P., & Langmuir, C. (2009). Feedback between deglaciation, volcanism, and atmospheric CO2. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 286(3–4), 479–491.

Kutterolf, S., Schindlbeck, J. C., Jegen, M., Freundt, A., & Straub, S. M. (2019). Milankovitch frequencies in tephra records at volcanic arcs: The relation of kyr-scale cyclic variations in volcanism to global climate changes. Quaternary Science Reviews, 204, 1–16.

Maclennan, J., Jull, M., McKenzie, D., Slater, L., & Grönvold, K. (2002). The link between volcanism and deglaciation in Iceland. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 3(11), 1–25.

How to cite: Longman, J., Gernon, T. M., Hincks, T. K., Panitz, S., and Palmer, M. R.: A million-year reconstruction of global volcanism intensity: How does it link to glaciation?, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-17827, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-17827, 2024.

Glacial Terminations represent the largest amplitude climate changes of the last several million years.  Over ~ 10 ky timescale, large northern hemisphere ice sheets retreat and sea level rises, and atmospheric CO₂ and global temperatures make a full transition from glacial to interglacial levels.  Several possible orbital-insolation triggers have been described to initiate and sustain glacial Terminations, and feedbacks between ice sheet retreat, ocean circulation and ocean carbon storage are invoked to explain the unstoppable progression. 

Because of the availability of radiocarbon dating, the most recent termination (TI) has been extensively characterized. Yet, it is widely discussed whether this sequence of feedbacks and millennial events, and rate of warming is recurrent over previous Terminations or is unique.  Beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating, the chronologies of climate records from ice and marine cores are often developed by tuning to orbital parameters which limits their use in understanding climate dynamics, particularly the response to orbital forcing.

Speleothems provide absolute age control and high-resolution proxy measurements. This archive therefore provides unique records of climate change across Terminations, and additionally may provide the opportunity to tune ice and marine core archives.  However, speleothem climate signals are encoded in a number of proxies. Unlike proxies in other archives like ice or marine cores, the climatic interpretation of a given proxy can vary quite significantly among different regions.

In this study, we

• synthesize the available speleothem records providing climate information for Terminations: TII, TIII, TIV and TV.
• present the records based on the aspect of climate encoded in the available records.
• examine the effects of different ice volume corrections on the final climate proxy record.
• evaluate whether there are leads and lags in the manifestation of Terminations across different aspects of the climate systems and different regions.
• we speculate on suitable tuning targets among marine and ice core proxies, and discuss what model outputs maybe most suitable for comparison.

How to cite: Kaushal, N., Stoll, H., and Pérez-Mejías, C.: Perspective on ice age Terminations from absolute chronologies provided by global speleothem records, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-10190, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10190, 2024.

Global mean surface temperature (GMST) is a fundamental measure of climate evolution in both past and present and a key quantity to evaluate climate simulations. However, for paleoclimate periods, its reconstruction hinges on uncertain and indirect observations which are distributed sparsely and non-uniformly in both space and time. Large datasets of homogenised proxy records help to reduce the sparsity. Then, the records can be aggregated in an algorithm retrieving the GMST signal. Here, we build on the algorithm designed in Snyder 2016, and on a recent database of ocean temperature proxy records to reconstruct the GMST evolution over the last glacial cycle (the last 130 thousand years). First, we evaluate the algorithm and quantify the sources of uncertainty. This analysis draws on pseudo-proxy experiments using a range of simulations of the last glacial cycle. We find that the over-representation of some regions (e.g. coasts, the Atlantic), to the detriment of others (e.g. the central Pacific) significantly impacts the reconstructed temperature anomaly and its variations. Additionally, millennial and shorter timescale variability cannot be reconstructed by the algorithm, due to bioturbation and age uncertainty. However, these experiments also demonstrate the ability of our algorithm to reconstruct the amplitude and timing of GMST variations occurring at orbital timescale (>10.000 years). Second, we reconstruct the GMST evolution during the last glacial cycle. We compare our result to previous studies, and discuss the improvements coming from the use of the recent proxy database. The high number of proxy records allow us to additionally investigate smaller regions (e.g. hemisphere) and overall further our understanding of the driver of orbital-scale GMST variability.

How to cite: Baudouin, J.-P., Weitzel, N., Jonkers, L., Dolman, A. M., and Rehfeld, K.: Reconstructing the global mean surface temperature of the last 130 thousand years, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-12199, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12199, 2024.

Pleistocene glacial-interglacial variability is still under debate, as the many hypotheses proposed are subject to the models used and assumptions made. The longer time scales involved in glacial cycles make it difficult to use comprehensive climate models because of its large computational cost. In this context, conceptual models are built to mimic complex processes in a simpler and more computationally efficient way. Here we present a conceptual climate-ice sheet model that aims to represent the state-of-the-art physical processes affecting glacial-interglacial variability. Our model was constructed using linear equations that explicitly represent ice-sheet modeling approaches. Preliminary results are consistent with Late Pleistocene variability and point to the existence of nonlinearities related to both ice dynamics and ice aging that determine the timing and shape of deglaciations.

How to cite: Pérez-Montero, S., Alvarez-Solas, J., Montoya, M., and Robinson, A.: Glacial-interglacial variability using a low-complexity, physically based model, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-9708, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9708, 2024.

Pleistocene temperatures correlate well with glacial-interglacial changes in global ice volume. While a discharge of ice-rafter debris (IRD) into the ocean directly reflects the rates of growth and decay (deglaciations) of glacial ice sheet margins at sea level, it is also the result of a rapidly changing global environment which affected both the meridional overturning in the ocean and the patterns in ocean-atmosphere circulation on a regional scale.  Circum-arctic land regions and adjacent ocean basins hold clues of varying ice sheet sizes through time. Understanding these records correctly is therefore an important asset to better appreciate Quaternary climate change also within a much broader global context. Marine sediment core data from the Nordic Seas show a stepwise trend of decreasing fluxes of IRD during major glaciations of the last 500 ka, i.e., marine isotope stages (MIS) 12, 6, and 2. Strongest IRD deposition occurred in MIS 12 (Elsterian), while it was lower in MIS 6 (Saalian) and 2 (Weichselian). These marine results of iceberg discharge rates from the western European margins, in particular, point to significant temporal changes in the ice-sheet coverage over northern Eurasia. Indeed, field data provide evidence for several major pre-Weichselian glaciations. Although their maximum limits were likely asynchronous in certain places, it seems evident that these ice sheets not only pre-date the Saalian time, they also extended much farther south (and east) than at any time later. The stepwise decreases in Eurasian ice-sheet extents during glacial maxima terminated in quite contrasting deglaciations and subsequent interglacial developments. It appears evident that such a systematic change in ice-sheet sizes were the result of specific ocean heat circulation, which influenced the pathways of atmospheric moisture transfer across northern Eurasia.

How to cite: Bauch, H.: Impact of waxing and waning of Northern Ice sheets on Pleistocene climate , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-5426, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5426, 2024.

During the last deglaciation large proglacial lakes formed at the base of the retreating northern hemisphere ice sheets. We assess the effect of these ice-contact lakes on regional climate and on the ice sheet surface mass balance components of the adjacent  Laurentide (LIS) and Fennoscandian (FIS) ice sheets,  using an atmosphere general circulation model with a novel extension for proglacial lakes in combination with a surface mass balance scheme for ice sheets, which, for the first time, allows to estimate the effect of the cold surface of these extensive lakes on the surface mass balance of the adjacent ice sheets. In a set of simulations inspired by the  Allerød interstadial around 13000 years before present, we demonstrate that the presence of proglacial lakes significantly reduces summer air temperatures in a larger area around the proglacial lakes and leads to reduced precipitation with increased snow/rain ratio. In consequence surface ablation reduces by 39% over the FIS and 28% over the LIS while accumulation only changes slightly by 1% and -3%  respectively. About one quarter of the response in surface ablation is related to the perennially cold surface of the proglacial lakes.

How to cite: Krebs-Kanzow, U., Sijbrandij, L., Knorr, G., Ackermann, L., Niu, L., and Lohmann, G.: The influence of proglacial lakes on climate and surface mass balance of retreating ice sheets: A study of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets at 13 ka BP, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-19780, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-19780, 2024.

Understanding the impact of freshwater discharge from the late Pleistocene Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) to the North Atlantic has been considered pivotal due to its direct regulating influence on the climate of the surrounding continents. Numerous studies using indirect paleo-proxies for iceberg discharge and fine-grained sediment supply have reconstructed the instabilities of the LIS. This study employs direct proxies for iceberg discharge and fine-grained sediment supply using the ice-rafted detritus (IRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scan combined with published X-ray diffraction (XRD) data from the same samples of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1313 (41°N; 32.57°W). Prominent Heinrich IRD events (H-events) of the last glacial cycle were accompanied by Ti/Ca and Fe/Ca peaks, consistent with the dolomite and calcite peaks, suggesting their Ordovician and Silurian carbonate rocks source that floor the Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. However, despite the lack of an IRD/g peak, Ti/Ca and Fe/Ca peaks in H-event 3 suggest the arrival of fine-grained sediments in the southern edge of the IRD belt, most likely by sediment plume. In contrast to the last glacial cycle, IRD/g and Ti/Ca and Fe/Ca peaks, often assigned as Heinrich-like events, were only identified during the cold marine isotope stage (MIS) 6, 8, 10, and 12. The IRD/g, Ti/Ca, and Fe/Ca peaks, in addition to the dolomite and calcite peaks during the MIS 7, suggest a fundamentally different configuration of the LIS compared to the other warm MISs of the last 500 ka. Our data suggest that the LIS-sourced icebergs impacted the northern edge of the subtropical gyre (STG) by directly injecting meltwater and modifying the upper water masses, which most likely resulted in the southward movements of the Polar and Arctic fronts. These frontal movements were accompanied by frequent encroachment of the subpolar to transitional water masses to the STG. The polar water-dwelling planktonic foraminifera Neogloboquadrina pachyderma coupled to the IRD/g or Fe/Ca and Ti/Ca peaks support this hypothesis. The new sedimentological and micropaleontological data suggest that the instability and configuration of the LIS were not uniform during all the warm MISs of the last 500 ka.

How to cite: Rashid, H., Zeng, M., and Menke, M.: Impact of the Laurentide Ice Sheet instabilities on the mid-latitude North Atlantic and subtropical gyre during the last five glacial cycles, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-6815, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-6815, 2024.

The evolution of the northern hemispheric climate during the last glacial period was shaped by two prominent signals of glacial climate variability known as Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich events. Dansgaard- Oeschger cycles are characterised by a period of rapid, decadal warming of up to 14°C in the high northern latitudes, followed by a more gradual cooling spanning several centuries. Temperature reconstructions from ice cores indicate a dominant recurrence interval of ∼1,500 years for Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. Heinrich events are quasi-episodic iceberg discharge events from the Laurentide ice sheet into the North Atlantic. The paleo record places most Heinrich events into the cold phase of the millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. However, not every Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle is accompanied by a Heinrich event, revealing a complex interplay between the two prominent modes of glacial variability that remains poorly understood to this day. Here, we present simulations with a coupled ice sheet-solid earth model to introduce a new mechanism that explains the synchronicity between Heinrich events and the cooling phase of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles. Unlike earlier studies, our proposed mechanism does not require a trigger mechanism during the cooling phase. Instead, the atmospheric warming signal associated with the interstadial phase of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle causes enhanced ice stream thickening such that a critical ice thickenss and temperature threshold is reached faster, triggering the Heinrich event during the early cooling phase of the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle. An advantage of our mechanism in comparison to previous theories is that it is not restricted to marine-terminating ice streams, but applies equally to land-terminating ice streams that only become marine-terminating during the actual Heinrich event. Our simulations demonstrate that this mechanism is able to reproduce the Heinrich event characteristics as known from the paleo record under a wide range of forcing scenarios and provides a simple explanation for the observational evidence of synchronous Heinrich events from different ice streams within the Laurentide ice sheet.

How to cite: Schannwell, C., Mikolajewicz, U., Kapsch, M.-L., and Ziemen, F.: A mechanism for reconciling the synchronisation of Heinrich events and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-10579, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10579, 2024.

Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) and Heinrich (H) events are ubiquitous features of glacial climates involving abrupt and large changes in climate over the North Atlantic region, extending also to the Southern Hemisphere through the bipolar seesaw mechanism. Ice core data also indicate that the DO and H events are accompanied by pronounced changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration, but their origin remains uncertain. Here, we use simulations with the fast Earth system model CLIMBER-X, which produces self-sustained DO events as internal variability, to explore the processes involved in the atmospheric CO₂ response. While the DO events are internally generated in the model, the Heinrich events are mimicked by adding a freshwater flux of 0.05 Sv over 1000 years in the latitudinal belt between 40°N and 60°N in the North Atlantic.
The simulated Greenland temperature varies by ~7-8°C between stadials and interstadials, with only small differences between H and DO stadials, while Antarctic temperature responds substantially stronger to H than to DO events, broadly in agreement with observations. In the CLIMBER-X simulations, atmospheric CO₂ varies by ~5 ppm during DO events, but by ~15 ppm during H events, comparable with ice core data. The peak in CO₂ concentrations is delayed by several centuries relative to both the stadial-interstadial transition and the peak in Antarctic temperature. The CO₂ rise during the H stadial is driven by ocean outgassing. In contrast, the rapid CO₂ increase after the transition to the interstadial results from soil carbon release from high NH latitudes originating from substantial warming.

How to cite: Willeit, M., Dalmonech, D., Liu, B., Ilyina, T., and Ganopolski, A.: Exploring the differing CO2 response to Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-15214, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-15214, 2024.

Romé et al. (2022) present a new set of long-run Last Glacial Maximum experiments with millennial-scale climate oscillations between cold and warm modes. These oscillations are triggered by different snapshots of ice-sheet meltwater derived from the early stages of the last deglaciation. The overall characteristics of the oscillating events share similarities with δ¹⁸O records of the last glacial period. We test the robustness of these oscillations under different climate conditions, i.e., changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and orbital configuration. These experiments were run with intentions to better understand the range of conditions the oscillations can be sustained within the model and provide additional insight into the triggering mechanisms that control abrupt climate changes. The results of our sensitivity analysis show that small changes in carbon dioxide concentrations can impact the periodicity and existence of oscillations. A decrease in carbon dioxide concentration decreases periodicity, and an increase in carbon dioxide concentration increases periodicity, leading to an end of the oscillations. Our results also show that for changes in orbital configuration, an increase in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation decreases periodicity and potentially also amplitude. The results show that small changes in climate conditions can impact the shape and existence of oscillations and how this could relate to the changing periodicity and amplitude of observed Dansgaard-Oeschger events as well as transitions from glacial to interglacial states.

How to cite: Snoll, B., Ivanovic, R., Gregoire, L., Rome, Y., and Sherriff-Tadano, S.: Sensitivity of millennial-scale climate oscillations to boundary conditions in HadCM3 glacial simulations, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-5280, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5280, 2024.

The ocean plays an essential role in the rise of atmospheric CO₂ by about 90 ppmv during the last deglaciation. The deglacial oceanic CO₂ outgassing is jointly controlled by the physical, biological and geochemical processes, which affect the variations in ocean circulation, biological carbon pump and alkalinity inventory. Transient simulations of climate-carbon feedback, particularly using the comprehensive Earth System Models, are instrumental tools to quantify the contribution of different processes and their interactions. Nonetheless, knowledge gaps still exist in the deglacial variations of oceanic carbon and nutrient cycling because considerable model uncertainties arise from the choices of model processes and parameters, and the proxy data is too sparse to fully constrain the model outcome.

We conduct transient simulations for the last deglaciation with the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) and examine the impact of different model tuning of the global ocean biogeochemistry component and a sediment module on the deglacial CO₂ outgassing. The atmospheric CO₂ is prognostically computed for the carbon cycle, considering only the atmosphere and ocean compartments, and it is prescribed for radiation computation. We force the model with reconstructions of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, orbital parameters, ice sheet and dust deposition. In line with the physical ocean component, we account for the automatic adjustment of marine biogeochemical tracers in response to changing bathymetry and coastlines related to deglacial meltwater discharge and isostatic adjustment.

We find the deglacial CO₂ outgassing is mainly driven by the sea surface warming in MPI-ESM, whereas variations in surface alkalinity and DIC have a relatively small contribution (~18%). Furthermore, the parameterisation of organic debris remineralisation considerably affects the deglacial increase in the global NPP due to different recycling rates of nutrients in the upper ocean. When a longer lifetime of dissolved organic matter is prescribed, the dissolved organic carbon pool in the glacial ocean increases, further facilitating the glacial ocean carbon sequestration. Including an interactive sediment module strongly impacts surface alkalinity due to input-sedimentation imbalance, affecting air-ocean CO₂ flux. Thus, attention has to be given to tuning and adjustments regarding the input-sedimentation imbalance of alkalinity in ESMs to better represent proxy data and the deglacial oceanic CO₂ outgassing.

How to cite: Liu, B. and Ilyina, T.: Quantifying the role of ocean biogeochemistry on the deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise using transient simulations with MPI-ESM, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-18082, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-18082, 2024.

Measurements of the air trapped in Antarctic ice cores reveal that atmospheric CO₂ concentration (pCO₂) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was about 80 ppmv lower than that recorded during the current Holocene interglacial (Bereiter et al., 2015). Studies also show a strong link between pCO₂, ice volume and Antarctic temperature, suggesting pCO₂ as a forcing or amplifying factor behind glacial/interglacial cycles (Petit et al., 1999; Parrenin et al., 2013). Despite such importance in the global climate changes, mechanisms behind rapid variations in pre-anthropic pCO₂ remain elusive. Numerical models emphasized the crucial role of exported marine productivity P_exp, (namely, the Soft Tissue Pump) in such changes. In particular, they feature marine productivity patterns from the Southern Ocean and show that a decrease in P_exp in the Sub-Antarctic zone, linked to a reduction in iron inputs from aeolian dusts, could have increased pCO₂ by 20 to 50 ppmv (Köhler and Fischer, 2006; Martínez-Garcia et al., 2009; Lambert et al., 2012). However, these studies are usually compared to proxy data from the Atlantic sector of the Subantarctic Zone i.e., an area under the direct influence of wind fields that makes it possible to test the “Fe-hypothesis” (Martin et al., 1990) but that is not necessarily representative of the entire ocean (e.g. Lambert et al., 2015). Due to a lack of recent P_exp data compilation but also of direct comparisons with model outputs integrating marine biogeochemistry­­, it remains difficult to understand the role marine biological productivity exerted on the carbon cycle and more specifically on the low pCO₂ during the LGM.

The aim of this study is to explore P_exp patterns during the LGM compared to the pre-industrial Holocene and understand the mechanisms driving their global changes, in order to try and estimate the contribution of marine productivity to the pCO₂ signalbased on (i) a new compilation of P_exp proxy data using the strategy previously proposed by Kohfeld et al. (2005) after Bopp et al., (2003), and (ii) a comparison of these data to outputs from the iLOVECLIM intermediate complexity.

Proxy data show that P_exp is generally higher during the LGM compared to the pre-industrial Holocene. This is particularly the case in the sub-Antarctic and sub-Arctic areas, in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean and in coastal upwelling settings i.e., regions that usually witness higher nutrient content due to revigorated ocean circulation and/or intensified surface winds. Simulations generally confirm such features except from the coastal upwelling and the Southern Ocean, due to a lack of spatial resolution and of aeolian inputs in the model, respectively. However, preliminary results from sensitivity tests show (i) net marine productivity fronts around ~40°N and 45°S due to extended sea ice cover and reduced global temperature, (ii) a decreased P_exp in the Pacific Ocean due to an overall thermohaline circulation slow down and (iii) an increase of P_exp in areas where fertilization by iron-rich dusts is expected (Lambert et al., 2021).

How to cite: Depuydt, P., Duchamp-Alphonse, S., Bouttes, N., Guarnieri, C., Karsenti, A., Yang, J.-W., Peterschmitt, J.-Y., and Landais, A.: Impact of marine productivity on atmospheric pCO2 during the Last Glacial Maximum: a model-data comparison, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-14882, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14882, 2024.

The last glacial maximum (LGM) is the most recent time period in Earth’s history with a climate that was much colder than the present. Robust temperature reconstructions from this period are needed to improve estimates of Earth's climate sensitivity and aid in future climate change projections. However, reconstructing sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during this period can be challenging due to the various limitations with the commonly used proxies. Here, we present new SST estimates from the Alboran Sea in the Western Mediterranean, an area where existing SST records for the LGM (derived from UK37, TEX86, planktic foraminiferal Mg/Ca) show large disagreements. Our new SST estimates are based on clumped isotope analyses of planktic foraminifera (G. bulloides), the same species as used for the Mg/Ca measurements in this area. Due to the insensitivity of the clumped isotope thermometer to changes in seawater chemistry, our results offer new independent constraints on the range of temperature shifts between glacial and interglacial periods in this area. Our findings are evaluated against existing SST estimates, highlighting the benefits and limitations of different proxy estimates. We find that while all proxies agree on the general millennial scale temperature trends during the period of deglaciation, they diverge in the magnitude of these temperature changes. Temperature reconstructions derived from clumped isotopes align more closely with those based on alkenone and Mg/Ca proxies than with those from TEX86, which show large differences. Our research demonstrates that clumped isotopes are a potentially effective tool to improve the accuracy of climate reconstructions from the LGM and the subsequent deglacial period.

How to cite: Fernandez, A., Rodríguez-Sanz, L., Taylor, V., Meckler, N., and Martínez-Ruiz, F.: Bridging Proxy Discrepancies: SST Reconstructions from the Alboran Sea During the Last Glacial Maximum and Deglaciation. , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-16591, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-16591, 2024.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (pCO₂) have increases by approximately  from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the late Holocene (last deglaciation). These changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases are recognized as climate system responses to gradual changes in insolation. Previous modeling studies have suggested that the deglacial increases in atmospheric pCO₂ are primarily attributed to the release of CO₂ from the ocean. In addition, it has been suggested that abrupt changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and associated interhemispheric climate changes are involved in the release of CO₂. However, there is still limited understanding in oceanic circulation changes, factors responsible for changes in chemical tracers in the ocean of the last deglaciation and its impact on atmospheric pCO₂.

In this study, we investigate the evolution of the ocean carbon cycle during the last deglaciation (21 to 11 ka BP) using three-dimensional ocean fields from the transient simulation of the MIROC 4m climate model, which exhibits abrupt AMOC changes as in reconstructions. We validate the simulated ocean carbon cycle changes and discuss possible biases and missing or underestimated processes in the model by comparing simulated carbon isotope ratios with sediment core data.

The qualitative changes in atmospheric pCO₂ are consistent with ice core records: during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), atmospheric  increases by . This is followed by a decrease of  during the Bølling–Allerød (BA) and an increase of  during the Younger Dryas (YD). However, the model underestimates the changes in atmospheric  during these events compared to ice core data. Radiocarbon and stable isotope signatures ( and ) indicate that the model underestimates the activated deep ocean ventilation and reduced efficiency of biological carbon export in the Southern Ocean, and active ventilation in the North Pacific Intermediate Water during HS1. The relatively small changes in simulated atmospheric  changes during HS1 may be attributed to these underestimations of ocean circulation changes. The changes in  associated with strengthening and weakening in the AMOC during the BA and YD are generally consistent with the sediment core record. On the other hand, while the data show a continuous  increase in the deep ocean throughout the YD, the model shows the opposite trend. This suggests that the model simulates excessive weakening of the AMOC during the YD, or limited representations in geochemical processes in the model including marine ecosystem responses and terrestrial carbon storage.

Decomposing the factors behind changes in ocean  reveals that changes in temperature and alkalinity have the main effects on atmospheric  changes. The compensation of the effects of temperature and alkalinity suggests the AMOC changes and associated bipolar climate changes contribute to a slight decrease or increase in atmospheric  during the BA and YD periods, respectively.

How to cite: Kobayashi, H., Oka, A., Obase, T., and Abe-Ouchi, A.: Assessing transient changes in the ocean carbon cycle during the last deglaciation through carbon isotope modeling , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-9419, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9419, 2024.

The last deglaciation, spanning approximately 23 to 6 thousand years before present (ky BP), represents the most recent period in which Earth’s climate underwent large-scale reorganizations comparable (albeit not strictly analogous) to those projected under future climate changes. However, the precise sequence of events – in particular, the timing and spatial manifestation of the initial warming – remains uncertain. Here we present a new method using Gaussian Mixture Model clustering to objectively decompose a model and proxy-based climate reconstruction (LGMR; Osman et al., 2021) into four patterns of temperature change across the last deglaciation. Broadly speaking, the patterns allow us to delineate the impact of retreating Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, the rise in greenhouse gases, and the influence of the bipolar seesaw. Crucially, our analysis reveals that the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere exhibited the earliest signs of warming onset around 21 kyr BP, coincident with a retreat of sea ice across the Southern Ocean. A similar pattern is observed when decomposing a solely model-based climate reconstruction (TraCE-21k; He et al., 2013).  Using a combination of both highly-simplified energy balance-type models and fully-coupled climate models forced with insolation alone, we show that the early warming and sea ice retreat was likely linked to an initial rise in high latitude summertime energy that is dominated by enhanced obliquity-driven forcing. Our findings collectively suggest that insolation dynamics in the Southern Hemisphere were a critical trigger of the Last Deglacial onset and, further, may represent one of the key prerequisites for glacial terminations during the late Pleistocene.

How to cite: Zheng, P., Osman, M., and Bauska, T.: An Early Warming Over the Southern Ocean During the Last Deglaciation, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-9411, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9411, 2024.

The addition of meltwater from continental ice sheets to the North Atlantic is thought to have played a pivotal role in the reorganization of climate and ocean circulation over the last deglaciation as well as during Heinrich events. This is supported by recent analysis of PMIP and CMIP results, which shows that meltwater addition into the North Atlantic can largely alter global climate, and remains a key uncertainty for both reconstruction and climate projections. 

To date, most model studies of freshwater “hosing” assume a relatively uniform distribution and apply meltwater to a large portion of the North Atlantic basin. However, AMOC weakening is sensitive to the actual input position of the typically cold and non-saline meltwater perturbation, and, on a centennial-millennial timescale, the resulting temperature and salt anomaly will only partially disperse over the entire North Atlantic surface ocean. In contrast, most proxy data sensitive to meltwater record the signal at a specific location. It is unclear if spatial heterogeneity of the ocean’s distribution of the meltwater anomaly may contribute to disagreements between freshwater proxy records and model simulations with freshwater additions tuned to reproduce the record of past AMOC weakenings.

To enhance understanding of the spatial distribution of meltwater anomalies during deglaciations, we present the results of a model sensitivity study using HadCM3 and artificial dye tracers to track the fate of meltwater originating from different Northern ice sheet sectors. We consider different meltwater scenarios consistent with Heinrich Stadial 1 ice sheet reconstructions and compare the results under different AMOC states. The results confirm that, on a centennial timescale, meltwater distribution is not uniform over the North Atlantic Ocean. The emerging patterns expose that the efficiency of a meltwater injection to produce a surface ocean anomaly (in, e.g., salinity or δ¹⁸O_sw) at a given proxy location differs between different ice sheet sectors by orders of magnitudes. Further, besides the direct effect of meltwater, the sensitivity of climate indicators, such as temperature, to changes in AMOC strength also shows regional discrepancies. 

How to cite: Endres, L., Ivanovic, R., Romé, Y., Tindall, J., and Stoll, H.: Tracking the fate of meltwater from different Northern ice sheet sectors over Heinrich Stadial 1, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-8715, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-8715, 2024.

Deglacial abrupt warming event is a ubiquitous feature of deglaciations during the Late Pleistocene. Nevertheless, during the last deglaciation an unusually early onset of abrupt Northern Hemisphere warming event, known as Bølling/Allerød (B/A) warming, complicates our understanding of their underlying dynamics, especially due to the large uncertainty in histories of ice sheet retreat and meltwater distributions. Here applying the latest reconstruction of ice sheet and meltwater flux, we conduct a set of transient climate experiments to investigate the triggering mechanism of the B/A warming. We find that the realistic spatial distribution of meltwater flux can stimulate the warming even under a persistent meltwater background. Our sensitivity experiments further show that its occurrence is associated with an orbitally induced climate self-oscillation under the very deglacial climate background related to atmospheric CO₂ level and ice sheet configurations. Furthermore, the continuous atmospheric CO₂ rising and ice sheet retreating appear to mute the oscillation by freshening the North Atlantic via modulating moisture transport by the Westerly. 

How to cite: Sun, Y., Zhang, X., Knorr, G., Werner, M., Tarasov, L., and Lohmann, G.: Bølling-Allerød warming as a part of orbitally induced climate oscillation , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-3128, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-3128, 2024.

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was defined based on the low stand sea-level records from the most recent period when global ice sheets reached their maximum volume, between 26,500 and 19,000 years before present. The end of this cold period was the last glacial termination (T1), occurred between 20 and 11.7 ka BP marking the transition to the current interglacial. During T1, the sea level rise responded to a variety of processes although the melting of the world widely distributed ice sheets was initially the main contributor and responsible for abrupt relative sea level rises known as meltwater pulses (MWPs) that deeply changed the Earth’s physiography. MWPs are short-lived global acceleration in sea-level rise resulting from intense glacial melting, surge of large ice streams into oceans and intense iceberg discharge during ice sheet disintegration. Nowadays, the main concerns related to the present fast global climate change is the possibility that sudden drastic ice loss from the Greenland and/or in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would lead to a new abrupt acceleration of the relative sea level with consequent inundation of vast coastal areas and/or to cause an abrupt slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (i.e. Golledge et al., 2019). To better understand the dynamics and risks associated with the onset of those events, their impact on thermohaline ocean circulation and climate it is pivotal the study of the well-preserved polar marine sediment records of the events occurred during the T1. Here, we present the results of a high-resolution sedimentological, micropaleontological and geochemical investigation of 3 sediment cores collected on the western margin of Svalbard and eastern side of the Fram Strait (Artic). The sediment cores were collected between 1322 m and 1725 m of water depth, in correspondence of the southern IODP sites that will be drilled during the IODP Exp-403 (June-August 2024).

How to cite: Gois Smith, F. S., Lucchi, R. G., Bini, M., Morigi, C., Ferretti, P., Bronzo, L., and Douss, N.: High-resolution sedimentological and palaeoceanographic investigation of the Last Glacial Termination (T1) recorded on the western margin of the Svalbard (Arctic), EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-6271, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-6271, 2024.

Evidence from both marine and ice cores strongly indicates that surface ocean processes influencing air-sea gas exchange of the Southern Ocean played a crucial role in the transition from a glacial to interglacial climate state. However, few archives have been able to reconstruct how high latitude surface ocean processes affected the biogeochemical changes occurring in nutrient utilization, primary productivity, and their effects on carbon sequestering in ecosystems. An opportunity to explore these processes is provided by accumulated snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) stomach oil deposits, defensively regurgitated by snow petrels at their nest sites. These deposits provide a record of biogeochemical processes in the austral summer, at a high trophic level and integrated over a relatively wide area defined by snow petrel foraging range. Here, we present a joint carbon and nitrogen stable isotope record from stomach oil deposits from the Lake Untersee nunataks in Dronning Maud Land (DML) integrating data from a coastal area of 65-70°S. Our results show a 3‰ offset in δ¹³C and 4‰ offset in δ¹⁵N between LGM and Holocene, indicating that the coastal high latitudes underwent large changes over the deglaciation. The δ¹⁵N depletion into the Holocene shows strong similarity to changes occurring in nutrient utilization along the margin of the polar front, indicating that the Southern Ocean high latitudes were not an isolated oasis during the LGM but biogeochemically connected to the surface ocean beyond the summer sea-ice margin. In addition, the presence of stomach oil deposits indicates that open water was present in summer along the coast of DML over both the LGM and Holocene. Such highly productive, open water areas were potentially an important factor in the air-sea gas exchange contributing to the deglacial atmospheric CO₂ -rise.

How to cite: Damm-Johnsen, T., Bentley, M. J., Gröcke, D. R., Hodgson, D., and McClymont, E. L.: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes across the last deglaciation: perspectives from snow petrel stomach oil deposits, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-15672, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-15672, 2024.