Evidence for tropical South Pacific climate change during the Younger Dryas and the Bølling–Allerød from geochemical records of fossil Tahiti corals

Asami, Ryuji; Felis, Thomas; Deschamps, Pierre; Hanawa, Kimio; Iryu, Yasufumi; Bard, Édouard; Durand, Nicolas; Murayama, Masafumi

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.09.011

Cited by 66 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…During the YD, the SSTs were slightly lower than the modern SSTs by ∼1 • C to ∼3 • C in the eastern Pacific (Kienast et al, 2006;Koutavas et al, 2002). These values were either similar (Palmer and Pearson, 2003) or lower by 3 • C to 4.5 • C in the western part of the Pacific (Beck et al, 1997;Corrège et al, 2004;Gagan et al, 2004) and lower by 1.5 • C in the central part at Tahiti (Asami et al, 2009). If the SST dropped by ∼3 • C (25 • C), the calculated pH would be about 8.07 rather than 8.04 because of the temperature dependence of pK B (Dickson, 1990).…”

Section: Variations Of "δ 11 B-ph" As a Function Of Timementioning

confidence: 86%

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)

et al. 2010

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Abstract. The "δ 11 B-pH" technique was applied to modern and ancient corals Porites from the sub-equatorial Pacific areas (Tahiti and Marquesas) spanning a time interval from 0 to 20.720 calendar years to determine the amplitude of pH changes between the Last Glacial Period and the Holocene. Boron isotopes were measured by MultiCollector -Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICPMS) with an external reproducibility of 0.25‰, allowing a precision of about ±0.03 pH-units for pH values between 8 and 8.3. The boron concentration [B] and isotopic composition of modern samples indicate that the temperature strongly controls the partition coefficient K D for different aragonite species. Modern coral δ 11 B values and the reconstructed sea surface pH values for different Pacific areas match the measured pH expressed on the seawater scale and confirm the calculation parameters that were previously determined by laboratory calibration exercises. Most ancient sea surface pH reconstructions near Marquesas are higher than modern values. These values range between 8.19 and 8.27 for the Holocene and reached 8.30 at the end of the last glacial period (20.7 kyr BP). At the end of the Younger Dryas (11.50±0.1 kyr BP), the central sub-equatorial Pacific experienced a dramatic drop of up to 0.2 pH-units from the average pH of 8.2 before and after this short event. Using the marine carbonate algorithms, we recalculated the aqueous pCO 2 to be 440±25 ppmV at around 11.5 kyr BP for corals at Marquesas and ∼500 ppmV near Tahiti where it Correspondence to: E. Douville (eric.douville@lsce.ipsl.fr) was assumed that pCO 2 in the atmosphere was 250 ppmV. Throughout the Holocene, the difference in pCO 2 between the ocean and the atmosphere at Marquesas ( pCO 2 ) indicates that the surface waters behave as a moderate CO 2 sink or source (−53 to 20 ppmV) during El Niño-like conditions. By contrast, during the last glacial/interglacial transition, this area was a marked source of CO 2 (21 to 92 ppmV) for the atmosphere, highlighting predominant La Niña-like conditions. Such conditions were particularly pronounced at the end of the Younger Dryas with a large amount of CO 2 released with pCO 2 of +185±25 ppmV. This last finding provides further evidence of the marked changes in the surface water pH and temperature in the equatorial Pacific at the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition and the strong impact of oceanic dynamic on the atmospheric CO 2 content.

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Section: Variations Of "δ 11 B-ph" As a Function Of Timementioning

confidence: 86%

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)

et al. 2010

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“…In contrast, seasonally resolved records from fossil shallow-water corals were successfully used to reconstruct interannual ENSO variability in the tropical Pacific during the last glacial 9 , but represent short intervals older than 38,000 years only. A few coral records are available for intervals of the last glacial termination [10][11][12][13][14] , but are too short to document significant interannual ENSO variability. In modern observations, ENSO variability is described by monitoring tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) 15 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Pronounced interannual variability in tropical South Pacific temperatures during Heinrich Stadial 1

et al. 2012

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The early last glacial termination was characterized by intense North Atlantic cooling and weak overturning circulation. This interval between similar to 18,000 and 14,600 years ago, known as Heinrich Stadial 1, was accompanied by a disruption of global climate and has been suggested as a key factor for the termination. However, the response of interannual climate variability in the tropical Pacific (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) to Heinrich Stadial 1 is poorly understood. Here we use Sr/Ca in a fossil Tahiti coral to reconstruct tropical South Pacific sea surface temperature around 15,000 years ago at monthly resolution. Unlike today, interannual South Pacific sea surface temperature variability at typical El Niño-Southern Oscillation periods was pronounced at Tahiti. Our results indicate that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation was active during Heinrich Stadial 1, consistent with climate model simulations of enhanced El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability at that time. Furthermore, a greater El Niño-Southern Oscillation influence in the South Pacific during Heinrich Stadial 1 is suggested, resulting from a southward expansion or shift of El Niño-Southern Oscillation sea surface temperature anomalies

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“…Program (IODP), allow access to coral paleoclimate archives underlying the living reef surface or present day seafloor [e.g., Asami et al, 2009;Hathorne et al, 2011]. However, the inconsistent occurrence of massive Porites colonies necessitates the use of additional genera for climate reconstructions.…”

Section: Reef Coring Techniques Such As Those Employed By the Internmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst reef cores have provided insights into sea level, reef growth, geomorphology and evolution [e.g., Ladd and Schlanger, 1960;Ladd et al, 1970;Lincoln and Schlanger, 1987;Webb et al, 2016], reef coring techniques remain relatively underutilized in terms of coral geochemistry-based environmental reconstructions for the Holocene. However, coring of submerged reefs, such as Integrated Ocean Drilling Program legs 310 and 325, have provided Holocene and deglacial corals for paleoclimate studies [Asami et al, 2009;Felis et al, 2014;Inoue et al, 2010] and deeper coring from reef flats, as documented here, may also provide appropriate corals for analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reef cores as records of Holocene water temperatures of the southern Great Barrier Reef: Geochemical analysis of traditional (Porites) and non-traditional (Acropora) reef building corals

Sadler¹

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In order to accurately predict future climate variations induced by natural and anthropogenic forcings, we require a detailed understanding of the Earth's climate system. With such temporally limited instrumental records, proxy-based reconstructions are an invaluable source of climate information. Current paleoclimate databases indicate a lack of records representing the southern hemisphere and tropics; key regions that can be represented by high resolution, coral geochemistry-based climate reconstructions.Reef coring techniques allow the recovery of significant proportions of coral material from throughout the Holocene, Pleistocene and beyond. Given the high species diversity of IndoPacific coral reefs, the presence of massive Porites commonly used for climate reconstruction is likely to be limited in reef cores. Corymbose Acropora, however, displays a high abundance in modern and fossil reef records and thus could act as a major source of new climate information from the Earth's recent history.Previous investigations of Acropora geochemistry have focused on branches, with significant levels of secondary thickening smoothing environmental signals otherwise recorded by the Sr/Ca ratio paleothermometer. This project investigates the potential of Acropora interbranch skeleton as a climate archive, following the identification of annual density banding patterns in computed tomography scans. Scanning electron microscopy based documentation of structure and growth patterns reveal that inter-branch skeleton is atypical for Acropora.Low linear extension rates, a simplified skeletal structure with limited secondary aragonite deposition, approximately horizontal density bands and seasonal cyclicity in Sr/Ca ratios bear a greater resemblance to massive corals such as Porites. These observations, combined with a high abundance in past and present Indo-Pacific reefs, suggest that inter-branch skeletal growth in Acropora may prove to be a valuable source of untapped paleoclimate information.A site-specific calibration for Acropora inter-branch skeleton Sr/Ca ratios to water temperature was conducted using modern corymbose Acropora colonies and concomitant instrumental water temperature records from the lagoon and fore-reef slope of Heron Reef, southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Large inter-colony differences in Sr/Ca ratios were observed in the modern cores, suggesting that inter-branch skeleton may not be a suitable archive for absolute temperature reconstruction. Normalisation of each Sr/Ca record to the corresponding core mean does, however, remove these inter-colony differences and allows the reconstruction of the seasonal water temperature amplitude with a sensitivity of −0.05 ii mmol/mol/°C. Application of the resulting transfer equation to the modern inter-branch skeleton Sr/Ca record successfully identified the greater seasonal temperature range of the lagoon compared to the adjacent reef slope. A site-specific calibration also was completed for southern GBR Porites at Heron Reef using the reef slope water te...

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Evidence for tropical South Pacific climate change during the Younger Dryas and the Bølling–Allerød from geochemical records of fossil Tahiti corals

Cited by 66 publications

References 76 publications

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)

Pronounced interannual variability in tropical South Pacific temperatures during Heinrich Stadial 1

Reef cores as records of Holocene water temperatures of the southern Great Barrier Reef: Geochemical analysis of traditional (Porites) and non-traditional (Acropora) reef building corals

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Evidence for tropical South Pacific climate change during the Younger Dryas and the Bølling–Allerød from geochemical records of fossil Tahiti corals

Cited by 66 publications

References 76 publications

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (&lt;i&gt;Porites&lt;/i&gt;)

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (&lt;i&gt;Porites&lt;/i&gt;)

Pronounced interannual variability in tropical South Pacific temperatures during Heinrich Stadial 1

Reef cores as records of Holocene water temperatures of the southern Great Barrier Reef: Geochemical analysis of traditional (Porites) and non-traditional (Acropora) reef building corals

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Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)

Abrupt sea surface pH change at the end of the Younger Dryas in the central sub-equatorial Pacific inferred from boron isotope abundance in corals (<i>Porites</i>)