| 1. |
- Turney, Chris S M, et al.
(author)
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Rapid global ocean-atmosphere response to Southern Ocean freshening during the last glacial
- 2017
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 8:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Contrasting Greenland and Antarctic temperatures during the last glacial period (115,000 to 11,650 years ago) are thought to have been driven by imbalances in the rates of formation of North Atlantic and Antarctic Deep Water (the 'bipolar seesaw'). Here we exploit a bidecadally resolved 14C data set obtained from New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) to undertake high-precision alignment of key climate data sets spanning iceberg-rafted debris event Heinrich 3 and Greenland Interstadial (GI) 5.1 in the North Atlantic (~30,400 to 28,400 years ago). We observe no divergence between the kauri and Atlantic marine sediment 14C data sets, implying limited changes in deep water formation. However, a Southern Ocean (Atlantic-sector) iceberg rafted debris event appears to have occurred synchronously with GI-5.1 warming and decreased precipitation over the western equatorial Pacific and Atlantic. An ensemble of transient meltwater simulations shows that Antarctic-sourced salinity anomalies can generate climate changes that are propagated globally via an atmospheric Rossby wave train.
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| 2. |
- Turney, Chris S M, et al.
(author)
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High-precision dating and correlation of ice, marine and terrestrial sequences spanning Heinrich Event 3 : Testing mechanisms of interhemispheric change using New Zealand ancient kauri (Agathis australis)
- 2016
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In: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791. ; 137, s. 126-134
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Robustly testing hypotheses of geographic synchroneity of abrupt and extreme change during the late Pleistocene (60,000 to 11,650 years ago) requires a level of chronological precision often lacking in ice, marine and terrestrial sequences. Here we report a bidecadally-resolved New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) tree-ring sequence spanning two millennia that preserves a record of atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) during ice-rafted debris event Heinrich Event 3 (HE3) in the North Atlantic and Antarctic Isotope Maximum 4 (AIM4) in the Southern Hemisphere. Using 14C in the marine Cariaco Basin and 10Be preserved in Greenland ice, the kauri 14C sequence allows us to precisely align sequences across this period. We observe no significant difference between atmospheric and marine 14C records during HE3, suggesting no stratification of surface waters and collapse in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Instead our results support recent evidence for a weakened AMOC across at least two millennia of the glacial period. Our work adds to a growing body of literature confirming that Heinrich events are not the cause of stadial cooling and suggests changes in the AMOC were not the primary driver of antiphase temperature trends between the hemispheres. Decadally-resolved 14C in ancient kauri offers a powerful new (and complementary) approach to polar ice core CH4 alignment for testing hypotheses of abrupt and extreme climate change.
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| 3. |
- Reimer, Paula J., et al.
(author)
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The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0-55 cal kBP)
- 2020
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In: Radiocarbon. - 0033-8222. ; 62:4, s. 725-757
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Radiocarbon (C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.
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| 4. |
- Vonk, Jorien E., et al.
(author)
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Temporal deconvolution of vascular plant-derived fatty acids exported from terrestrial watersheds
- 2019
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In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7037 .- 1872-9533. ; 244, s. 502-521
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Relatively little is known about the amount of time that lapses between the photosynthetic fixation of carbon by vascular land plants and its incorporation into the marine sedimentary record, yet the dynamics of terrestrial carbon sequestration have important implications for the carbon cycle. Vascular plant carbon may encounter multiple potential intermediate storage pools and transport trajectories, and the age of vascular plant carbon accumulating in marine sediments will reflect these different pre-depositional histories. Here, we examine down-core C-14 profiles of higher plant leaf wax-derived fatty acids isolated from high fidelity sedimentary sequences spanning the so-called bomb-spike, and encompassing a ca. 60-degree latitudinal gradient from tropical (Cariaco Basin), temperate (Saanich Inlet), and polar (Mackenzie Delta) watersheds to constrain integrated vascular plant carbon storage/transport times (residence times). Using a modeling framework, we find that, in addition to a young (conditionally defined as < 50 y) carbon pool, an old pool of compounds comprises 49 to 78 % of the fractional contribution of organic carbon (OC) and exhibits variable ages reflective of the environmental setting. For the Mackenzie Delta sediments, we find a mean age of the old pool of 28 ky (+/- 9.4, standard deviation), indicating extensive pre-aging in permafrost soils, whereas the old pools in Saanich Inlet and Cariaco Basin sediments are younger, 7.9 (+/- 5.0) and 2.4 (+/- 0.50) to 3.2 (+/- 0.54) ky, respectively, indicating less protracted storage in terrestrial reservoirs. The young pool showed clear annual contributions for Saanich Inlet and Mackenzie Delta sediments (comprising 24% and 16% of this pool, respectively), likely reflecting episodic transport of OC from steep hillside slopes surrounding Saanich Inlet and annual spring flood deposition in the Mackenzie Delta, respectively. Contributions of 5-10 year old OC to the Cariaco Basin show a short delay of OC inflow, potentially related to transport time to the offshore basin. Modeling results also indicate that the Mackenzie Delta has an influx of young but decadal material (20-30 years of age), pointing to the presence of an intermediate reservoir. Overall, these results show that a significant fraction of vascular plant C undergoes pre-aging in terrestrial reservoirs prior to accumulation in deltaic and marine sediments. The age distribution, reflecting both storage and transport times, likely depends on landscape-specific factors such as local topography, hydrographic characteristics, and mean annual temperature of the catchment, all of which affect the degree of soil buildup and preservation. We show that catchment-specific carbon residence times across landscapes can vary by an order of magnitude, with important implications both for carbon cycle studies and for the interpretation of molecular terrestrial paleoclimate records preserved in sedimentary sequences.
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| 5. |
- Blaauw, Maarten, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Were last glacial climate events simultaneous between Greenland and western Europe?
- 2008
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In: Climate of the Past Discussions. - 1814-9359. ; 4, s. 1203-1217
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During the last glacial period, several large abrupt climate fluctuations took place on the Greenland ice cap and elsewhere. Often these Dansgaard/Oeschger events are assumed to have been synchronous, and then used as tie-points to link chronologies between the proxy archives. However, if temporally separate events are lumped into one illusionary event, climatic interpretations of the tuned events will obviously be flawed. Here, we compare Dansgaard/Oeschger-type events in a well-dated record from south-eastern France with those in Greenland ice cores. Instead of assuming simultaneous climate events between both archives, we keep their age models independent. Even these well-dated archives possess large chronological uncertainties, that prevent us from inferring synchronous climate events at decadal to multi-centennial time scales. If possible, tuning of proxy archives should be avoided.
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| 6. |
- Shanahan, Timothy M., et al.
(author)
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Environmental controls on the H-2/H-1 values of terrestrial leaf waxes in the eastern Canadian Arctic
- 2013
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In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7037 .- 1872-9533. ; 119, s. 286-301
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The hydrogen isotope composition of plant waxes preserved in lacustrine sediments is a potentially valuable tool for reconstructing paleoenvironmental changes in the Arctic. However, in contrast to the mid-and low-latitudes, significantly less effort has been directed towards understanding the factors controlling D/H fractionation in high latitude plant waxes and the impact of these processes on the interpretation of sedimentary leaf wax delta D records. To better understand these processes, we examined the D/H ratios of long chain fatty acids in lake surface sediments spanning a temperature and precipitation gradient on Baffin Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic. D/H ratios of plant waxes increase with increasing temperature and aridity, with values ranging from -240 parts per thousand to -160 parts per thousand over the study area. Apparent fractionation factors between n-alkanoic acids in Arctic lake sediments and precipitation(epsilon(FA-ppt)) are less negative than those of mid-latitude lakes and modern plants by 25 parts per thousand to 65 parts per thousand, consistent with n-alkane data from modern Arctic plants (Yang et al., 2011). Furthermore, epsilon(FA-ppt) values from Arctic lakes become systematically more positive with increasing evaporation, in contrast to mid-latitude sites, which show little to no change in fractionation with aridity. These data are consistent with enhanced water loss and isotope fractionation at higher latitude in the Arctic summer, when continuous sunlight supports increased daily photosynthesis. The dominant control on delta D-FA variations on Baffin Island is temperature. However, changing epsilon(FA-ppt) result in steeper delta D-FA-temperature relationships than observed for modern precipitation. The application of this delta D-FA-based paleotemperature calibration to existing delta D-FA records from Baffin Island produces much more realistic changes in late Holocene temperature and highlights the importance of these effects in influencing the interpretation of Arctic delta D-FA records. A better understanding of the controls on hydrogen isotope fractionation in high latitude leaf waxes will be essential to the proper interpretation of isotope records from sedimentary plant waxes in the Arctic.
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| 7. |
- Waelbroeck, Claire, et al.
(author)
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Consistently dated Atlantic sediment cores over the last 40 thousand years
- 2019
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In: Scientific Data. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2052-4463. ; 6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rapid changes in ocean circulation and climate have been observed in marine-sediment and ice cores over the last glacial period and deglaciation, highlighting the non-linear character of the climate system and underlining the possibility of rapid climate shifts in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. To date, these rapid changes in climate and ocean circulation are still not fully explained. One obstacle hindering progress in our understanding of the interactions between past ocean circulation and climate changes is the difficulty of accurately dating marine cores. Here, we present a set of 92 marine sediment cores from the Atlantic Ocean for which we have established age-depth models that are consistent with the Greenland GICC05 ice core chronology, and computed the associated dating uncertainties, using a new deposition modeling technique. This is the first set of consistently dated marine sediment cores enabling paleoclimate scientists to evaluate leads/lags between circulation and climate changes over vast regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, this data set is of direct use in paleoclimate modeling studies.
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