We compiled published data on hydrogen isotope values for leaf wax n-alkanes (C 27 , C 29 ,

Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the cold tongue of the eastern equatorial Pacific exert powerful controls on global atmospheric circulation patterns. We examined climate variability in this region from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present, using a SST record reconstructed from magnesium/calcium ratios in foraminifera from sea-floor sediments near the Galápagos Islands. Cold-tongue SST varied coherently with precession-induced changes in seasonality during the past 30,000 years. Observed LGM cooling of just 1.2 degrees C implies a relaxation of tropical temperature gradients, weakened Hadley and Walker circulation, southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and a persistent El Niño-like pattern in the tropical Pacific. This is contrasted with mid-Holocene cooling suggestive of a La Niña-like pattern with enhanced SST gradients and strengthened trade winds. Our results support a potent role for altered tropical Pacific SST gradients in global climate variations.

Tropical rainfall patterns control the subsistence lifestyle of more than one billion people. Seasonal changes in these rainfall patterns are associated with changes in the position of the intertropical convergence zone, which is characterized by deep convection causing heavy rainfall near 10• N in boreal summer and 3• N in boreal winter. Dynamic controls on the position of the intertropical convergence zone are debated, but palaeoclimatic evidence from continental Asia, Africa and the Americas suggests that it has shifted substantially during the past millennium, reaching its southernmost position some time during the Little Ice Age (AD 1400-1850). However, without records from the meteorological core of the intertropical convergence zone in the Pacific Ocean, quantitative constraints on its position are lacking. Here we report microbiological, molecular and hydrogen isotopic evidence from lake sediments in the Northern Line Islands, Galápagos and Palau indicating that the Pacific intertropical convergence zone was south of its modern position for most of the past millennium, by as much as 500 km during the Little Ice Age. A colder Northern Hemisphere at that time, possibly resulting from lower solar irradiance, may have driven the intertropical convergence zone south. We conclude that small changes in Earth's radiation budget may profoundly affect tropical rainfall.

Nitrogen isotopic measurements in fossil chlorophyll from late Pleistocene organic-rich sediments (sapropels) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea provide geochemical evidence for stratified, nutrient-depleted surface water and extensive nitrogen fixation. This evidence is reconciled with previous indications of high productivity by invoking a model of sapropel formation in which increased river discharge facilitates development of a specialized phytoplankton population whose annual mass sinking provides the organic flux to generate sapropels. This interpretation is consistent with the widespread occurrence of mat-forming diatoms that thrive in stratified water and can harbor diazotrophic bacterial symbionts, but does not support eutrophication of surface waters by enhanced river runoff or a circulation reversal.

Understanding the response of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to global warming requires quantitative data on ENSO under different climate regimes. Here, we present a reconstruction of ENSO in the eastern tropical Pacific spanning the past 10,000 years derived from oxygen isotopes in fossil mollusk shells from Peru. We found that ENSO variance was close to the modern level in the early Holocene and severely damped ~4000 to 5000 years ago. In addition, ENSO variability was skewed toward cold events along coastal Peru 6700 to 7500 years ago owing to a shift of warm anomalies toward the Central Pacific. The modern ENSO regime was established ~3000 to 4500 years ago. We conclude that ENSO was sensitive to changes in climate boundary conditions during the Holocene, including but not limited to insolation.

Ocean acidification refers to the lowering of the ocean's pH due to the uptake of anthropogenic CO from the atmosphere. Coral reef calcification is expected to decrease as the oceans become more acidic. Dissolving calcium carbonate (CaCO) sands could greatly exacerbate reef loss associated with reduced calcification but is presently poorly constrained. Here we show that CaCO dissolution in reef sediments across five globally distributed sites is negatively correlated with the aragonite saturation state (Ω) of overlying seawater and that CaCO sediment dissolution is 10-fold more sensitive to ocean acidification than coral calcification. Consequently, reef sediments globally will transition from net precipitation to net dissolution when seawater Ω reaches 2.92 ± 0.16 (expected circa 2050 CE). Notably, some reefs are already experiencing net sediment dissolution.

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[1] Late Quaternary climate fluctuated between extremes of glaciations, lasting $90 kyr on average, and interglacial episodes, lasting $10 kyr. Still largely unknown are the spatial and temporal evolution of these global climate states, with vigorous debate still underway on the mechanisms responsible for glacial inceptions and terminations. Though it is widely believed that the Southern Hemisphere oceans play a central role in global climate changes, few paleoclimate records exist from there. Here we present three new alkenone-derived SST records from the midlatitude Southern Hemisphere spanning the last 160 kyr, a full glacial-interglacial cycle. Our subtropical SST records from the last glacial period are characterized by (1) warming 47-23 kyr B.P., when high latitudes in both hemispheres cooled, and (2) milder temperatures during the penultimate glacial period than during the last glacial interval. These SST features are found to be of tropical-to subtropical-wide extent, implying increased thermal gradients at times of high-latitude ice sheet growth. This has implications for the vigor of atmospheric and upper ocean circulation and the transport of heat and moisture to the poles that may have been instrumental in the growth and maintenance of polar ice sheets during glacial periods.