Active Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) during the warm Pliocene

Burls, Natalie J.; Fedorov, Alexey V.; Sigman, Daniel M.; Jaccard, Samuel L.; Tiedemann, Ralf; Haug, Gerald H.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700156

Title: Active Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) during the warm Pliocene

Journal Article · Wed Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1700156· OSTI ID:1429322

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George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States). Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences; Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Department of Geology and Geophysics
Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Department of Geology and Geophysics
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Department of Geosciences
University of Bern (Switzerland). Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research
Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven (Germany)
Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz (Germany); ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Geological Institute, Department of Earth Science

An essential element of modern ocean circulation and climate is the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), which includes deep-water formation in the subarctic North Atlantic. However, a comparable overturning circulation is absent in the Pacific, theworld’s largest ocean,where relatively fresh surface waters inhibitNorth Pacific deep convection. We present complementary measurement and modeling evidence that the warm, ~400–ppmv (parts per million by volume) CO₂ world of the Pliocene supported subarctic North Pacific deep-water formation and a Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) cell. In Pliocene subarctic North Pacific sediments, we report orbitally paced maxima in calcium carbonate accumulation rate, with accompanying pigment and total organic carbon measurements supporting deep-ocean ventilation-driven preservation as their cause. Together with high accumulation rates of biogenic opal, these findings require vigorous bidirectional communication between surface waters and interior waters down to ~3 km in the western subarctic North Pacific, implying deep convection. Redoxsensitive trace metal data provide further evidence of higher Pliocene deep-ocean ventilation before the 2.73-Ma (million years) transition. This observational analysis is supported by climate modeling results, demonstrating that atmospheric moisture transport changes, in response to the reduced meridional sea surface temperature gradients of the Pliocene, were capable of eroding the halocline, leading to deep-water formation in the western subarctic Pacific and a strong PMOC. This second Northern Hemisphere overturning cell has important implications for heat transport, the ocean/atmosphere cycle of carbon, and potentially the equilibrium response of the Pacific to global warming.

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Research Organization:: George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016538

OSTI ID:: 1429322

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 9; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 45 works

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