Abrupt climate change in the Atlantic Ocean during the last 20,000 years : insights from multi-element analysis of benthic and planktic foraminifera and coupled OA-GCM

Minor and trace element records of planktic and benthic foraminifera from Atlantic sediment cores, as well as output from a coupled OAGCM, were used to investigate the magnitude and distribution of the oceanic response to abrupt climate events of the past 20 kyr. The study addressed three major questions: 1) What is the magnitude of high-latitude sea surface temperature and salinity variability during abrupt climate events? 2) Does intermediate depth ventilation change in conjunction with high-latitude climate variability? 3) Are the paleoclimate data consistent with the response of a coupled OAGCM to a freshwater perturbation? To address these questions, analytical methods were implemented for the simultaneous measurement of Mg/Ca, Zn/Ca, Cd/Ca, Mn/Ca and Al/Ca in foraminiferal samples using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Paired records of planktic foraminiferal [delta]¹⁸O and Mg/Ca from the subpolar North Atlantic reveal trends of increasing temperatures ([approx.] 3⁰C) and salinities over the course of the Holocene, which were punctuated by abrupt events. The variability does not appear to be periodic, but tends to recur within a broad millennial band. The records provide the first evidence of open-ocean cooling (nearly 2⁰C) and freshening during the 8.2 kyr event, and suggest similar conditions at 9.3 ka.

Department dc:contributor.department

Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Came, Rosemarie Evangeline

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Delia W. Oppo.

• /Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/33945
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/33945

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33945