Asynchronous warming and δ18O evolution of deep Atlantic water masses during the last deglaciation

Zhang, Jiaxu; Liu, Zhengyu; Brady, Esther C.; Oppo, Delia W.; Clark, Peter U.; Jahn, Alexandra; Marcott, Shaun A.; Lindsay, Keith

doi:10.1073/pnas.1704512114

Asynchronous warming and δ¹⁸O evolution of deep Atlantic water masses during the last deglaciation

Journal Article · Mon Oct 02 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704512114· OSTI ID:1412877

^[1]; Liu, Zhengyu ^[2]; Brady, Esther C. ^[3]; ^[4]; Clark, Peter U. ^[5]; ^[6]; Marcott, Shaun A. ^[7]; Lindsay, Keith ^[3]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Center for Climatic Research; Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Center for Climatic Research; Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Geography, Atmospheric Science Program
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Division
Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, MA (United States). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Inst. of Arctic and Alpine Research
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Geoscience

The large-scale reorganization of deep ocean circulation in the Atlantic involving changes in North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) played a critical role in regulating hemispheric and global climate during the last deglaciation. However, changes in the relative contributions of NADW and AABW and their properties are poorly constrained by marine records, including δ¹⁸O of benthic foraminiferal calcite (δ¹⁸Oc). Here in this study, we use an isotope-enabled ocean general circulation model with realistic geometry and forcing conditions to simulate the deglacial water mass and δ¹⁸O evolution. Model results suggest that, in response to North Atlantic freshwater forcing during the early phase of the last deglaciation, NADW nearly collapses, while AABW mildly weakens. Rather than reflecting changes in NADW or AABW properties caused by freshwater input as suggested previously, the observed phasing difference of deep δ¹⁸O_c likely reflects early warming of the deep northern North Atlantic by ~1.4 °C, while deep Southern Ocean temperature remains largely unchanged. We propose a thermodynamic mechanism to explain the early warming in the North Atlantic, featuring a strong middepth warming and enhanced downward heat flux via vertical mixing. Our results emphasize that the way that ocean circulation affects heat, a dynamic tracer, is considerably different from how it affects passive tracers, like δ¹⁸O, and call for caution when inferring water mass changes from δ¹⁸O_c records while assuming uniform changes in deep temperatures.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396; SC0006744

OSTI ID:: 1412877

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--17-28261

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 42 Vol. 114; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Atlantic water masses
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deep ocean warming
last deglaciation
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