Laminated sediments in the Bering Sea reveal atmospheric teleconnections to Greenland climate on millennial to decadal timescales during the last deglaciation

Abstract

Abstract. During the last glacial termination, the upper North Pacific Ocean underwent dramatic and rapid changes in oxygenation that lead to the transient intensification of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), recorded by the widespread occurrence of laminated sediments on circum-Pacific continental margins. We present a new laminated sediment record from the mid-depth (1100 m) northern Bering Sea margin that provides insight into these deglacial OMZ maxima with exceptional, decadal-scale detail. Combined ultrahigh-resolution micro-X-ray-fluorescence (micro-XRF) data and sediment facies analysis of laminae reveal an alternation between predominantly terrigenous and diatom-dominated opal sedimentation. The diatomaceous laminae are interpreted to represent spring/summer productivity events related to the retreating sea ice margin. We identified five laminated sections in the deglacial part of our site. Lamina counts were carried out on these sections and correlated with the Bølling–Allerød and Preboreal phases in the North Greenland Ice Core (NGRIP) oxygen isotope record, indicating an annual deposition of individual lamina couplets (varves). The observed rapid decadal intensifications of anoxia, in particular within the Bølling–Allerød, are tightly coupled to short-term warm events through increases in regional export production. This dependence of laminae formation on warmer temperatures is underlined by a correlation with published Bering Sea sea surface temperature records and δ18O data of planktic foraminifera from the Gulf of Alaska. The rapidity of the observed changes strongly implies a close atmospheric teleconnection between North Pacific and North Atlantic regions. We suggest that concomitant increases in export production and subsequent remineralization of organic matter in the Bering Sea, in combination with oxygen-poor waters entering the Being Sea, drove down oxygen concentrations to values below 0.1 mL L−1 and caused laminae preservation. Calculated benthic–planktic ventilation ages show no significant variations throughout the last deglaciation, indicating that changes in formation rates or differing sources of North Pacific mid-depth waters are not prime candidates for strengthening the OMZ at our site. The age models established by our correlation procedure allow for the determination of calendar age control points for the Bølling–Allerød and the Preboreal that are independent of the initial radiocarbon-based chronology. Resulting surface reservoir ages range within 730–990 yr during the Bølling–Allerød, 800–1100 yr in the Younger Dryas, and 765–775 yr for the Preboreal.

Comparing dust flux records from the Subarctic North Pacific and Greenland: Implications for atmospheric transport to Greenland and for the application of dust as a chronostratigraphic tool

“…The geochemical evidence for a common dust source in the SNP and Greenland, combined with previous findings of a close atmospheric coupling between the two regions during the last deglaciation [e.g., Ruth et al , ; Max et al , ; Kuehn et al , ; Praetorius and Mix , ], the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~23,000–18,000 year B.P. ; B.P.…”

“…While relative dust flux changes between Greenland and the western SNP show differences, the apparent synchronicity in the patterns of sudden transitions in the records suggests that the timing of abrupt dust flux changes during the last deglaciation was synchronous in both regions. Support for this assumption comes from geochemical evidence for a common dust source in the western SNP and Greenland [ Biscaye et al , ; Svensson et al , ; Bory et al , , ] and previous findings of a close atmospheric coupling between the two regions during the last deglaciation and Holocene [e.g., Ruth et al , ; Max et al , ; Kuehn et al , ; Praetorius and Mix , ]. Further, different components of Earth's climate system are likely to change concurrently during periods of abrupt climate change [e.g., Alley et al , ], a feature that has been extensively used in paleoceanographic studies to line up transitions in records of the same parameter between different regions [e.g., Pisias et al , ; Martinson et al , ].…”

Summer temperature evolution on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East, during the past 20 000 years

“…This similarity to N Atlantic climate change is in line with the majority of SST records from the surrounding seas (Ternois et al, 2000;Seki et al, 2004;Max et al, 2012;Caissie et al, 2010;Praetorius and Mix, 2014;Praetorius et al, 2015;Meyer et al, 2016). This inphase variability between Greenland and N Pacific records is assumed to result from atmospheric teleconnections be-tween the N Atlantic and the N Pacific oceans (e.g., Manabe and Stouffer, 1988;Mikolajewicz et al, 1997;Vellinga and Wood, 2002;Okumura et al, 2009;Chikamoto et al, 2012;Max et al, 2012;Kuehn et al, 2014;Praetorius and Mix, 2014). While atmospheric coupling with the N Atlantic seem to have affected Kamchatka between ∼ 15 and ∼ 10 ka BP, such a connection is questionable during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1).…”

“…Another important source of uncertainty are changes in reservoir ages of the surface ocean during the last deglaciation (Sarnthein et al, 2015). However, recent studies suggest that reservoir ages of the Bering Sea and the N Pacific varied by less than 200 years (Lund et al, 2011;Kuehn et al, 2014) and are within the range of reservoir ages originally assumed by Max et al (2012).…”

Alternating Influence of Northern Versus Southern‐Sourced Water Masses on the Equatorial Pacific Subthermocline During the Past 240 ka

“…As a result, export production and the deposition of biogenic opal and total organic carbon increased dramatically during the Termination I compared to the last glacial (Kim et al, ). In addition, epibenthic δ 13 C data from the Bering Sea and the deposition of laminated sediments in the Bering Sea during the Bølling–Allerød and the early Holocene point toward major decreases in middepth oxygenation and hence an expanded oxygen minimum zone that was explained by less well‐ventilated intermediate waters (Kuehn et al, ; Max, Lembke‐Jene, et al, ). Interestingly, our Δδ 13 C comparison further indicates a high variability within interstadials, especially MIS 3 (Figure ).…”