[1] We present new alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST) estimates from the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) for the last 30 kyr. By combining these new results with recently published records from the region, we reconstruct the spatial pattern of changes in SST during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Alkenone-based SST estimates show a greater glacial cooling in the upwelling environment of the cold tongue than in sites located further north in the equatorial front and eastern Pacific Warm Pool. This result agrees with the paradigm of stronger glacial winds, increased upwelling, steeper zonal thermocline tilt, and stronger advection of cold water in the Peru Current. Furthermore, we investigate possible changes in glacial surface hydrography by using the alkenone-based SST reconstructions to correct planktonic foraminifera d
18O for the temperature effect. After additional correction for the global ice volume effect, the residual changes in seawater d18 O show a clear latitudinal pattern that would be consistent with a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. We thus suggest that changes in sea surface salinities could explain contrasting SST reconstructions based on planktonic foraminifera d 18
[1] Significant uncertainties persist in the reconstruction of past sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, especially regarding the amplitude of the glacial cooling and the details of the post-glacial warming. Here we present the first regional calibration of alkenone unsaturation in surface sediments versus mean annual sea surface temperatures (maSST). Based on 81 new and 48 previously published data points, it is shown that open ocean samples conform to established global regressions of U K′ 37 versus maSST and that there is no systematic bias from seasonality in the production or export of alkenones, or from surface ocean nutrient concentrations or salinity. The flattening of the regression at the highest maSSTs is found to be statistically insignificant. For the near-coastal Peru upwelling zone between 11-15°S and 76-79°W, however, we corroborate earlier observations that U K′ 37 SST estimates significantly over-estimate maSSTs at many sites. We posit that this is caused either by uncertainties in the determination of maSSTs in this highly dynamic environment, or by biasing of the alkenone paleothermometer toward El Niño events as postulated by Rein et al. (2005).
We reconstructed water quality changes for 1800 to 2000 in Charlotte Harbor (Florida), a shallow subtropical estuary, by using a suite of biological and geochemical proxies in dated sediments collected in the region of a present day, midsummer hypoxic zone. The declining freshwater loading into the estuary from 1931 to the 1980s is not the probable causal agent encouraging the appearance or expansion of a hypoxia zone (measuring up to 90 km 2 in summer). Rather, the reconstructed trends in nitrogen loading indicate increased phytoplankton production has likely caused a decline in bottom water oxygen concentrations. Sedimentary biogenic silica (BSi), carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations increased concurrently with known or inferred changes in nutrient loadings. There were direct relationships between phytoplankton pigments and BSi, heavier ␦ 34 S with increased carbon loading, and sequestration of P, Al, and Fe as carbon loading increased. The results from the sediment analyses and the results from mixing models using C : N ratios and ␦ 13 C suggest an estuarine system that is responsive to increased carbon loading from the nitrogen-limited phytoplankton community and whose sediments are becoming increasingly anoxic as a result. The present nitrogen loading is about three times above that prior to the 1800s, suggesting that without management intervention the anticipated doubling of the watershed's population from 1990 to 2020 will greatly increase the nitrogen loading to this estuary and will lead to much higher amounts of phytoplankton biomass and accumulation and exacerbate hypoxic conditions.
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