Ice sheet and precession controlled subarctic Pacific productivity and upwelling over the last 550,000 years

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 3489
• Main Authors: Yao, Zhengquan, Shi, Xuefa, Yin, Qiuzhen, Jaccard, Samuel, Liu, Yanguang, Guo, Zhengtang, Gorbarenko, Sergey A, Wang, Kunshan, Chen, Tianyu, Wu, Zhipeng, Nan, Qingyun, Zou, Jianjun, Wang, Hongmin, Cui, Jingjing, Wang, Anqi, Yang, Gongxu, Zhu, Aimei, Bosin, Aleksandr, Vasilenko, Yuriy, Yu, Yonggui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 25.04.2024; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide concentration; Glaciation; Ice sheets; Interglacial periods; Nutrients; Ocean circulation; Oceans; Pleistocene; Pleistocene climates; Precession; Productivity; Subsurface water; Time; Upwelling; Warm climates; Westerlies
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47871-8

The polar oceans play a vital role in regulating atmospheric CO concentrations (pCO ) during the Pleistocene glacial cycles. However, despite being the largest modern reservoir of respired carbon, the impact of the subarctic Pacific remains poorly understood due to limited records. Here, we present high-resolution, Th-normalized export productivity records from the subarctic northwestern Pacific covering the last five glacial cycles. Our records display pronounced, glacial-interglacial cyclicity superimposed with precessional-driven variability, with warm interglacial climate and high boreal summer insolation providing favorable conditions to sustain upwelling of nutrient-rich subsurface waters and hence increased export productivity. Our transient model simulations consistently show that ice sheets and to a lesser degree, precession are the main drivers that control the strength and latitudinal position of the westerlies. Enhanced upwelling of nutrient/carbon-rich water caused by the intensification and poleward migration of the northern westerlies during warmer climate intervals would have led to the release of previously sequestered CO from the subarctic Pacific to the atmosphere. Our results also highlight the significant role of the subarctic Pacific in modulating pCO changes during the Pleistocene climate cycles, especially on precession timescale ( ~ 20 kyr).