Weakened AMOC related to cooling and atmospheric circulation shifts in the last interglacial Eastern Mediterranean

Elan J. Levy (), Hubert B. Vonhof, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Alfredo Martínez-García, Avner Ayalon, Alan Matthews, Vered Silverman, Shira Raveh-Rubin, Tami Zilberman, Gal Yasur, Mareike Schmitt and Gerald H. Haug
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Elan J. Levy: Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry
Hubert B. Vonhof: Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry
Miryam Bar-Matthews: The Geological Survey of Israel
Alfredo Martínez-García: Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry
Avner Ayalon: The Geological Survey of Israel
Alan Matthews: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Vered Silverman: Weizmann Institute of Science
Shira Raveh-Rubin: Weizmann Institute of Science
Tami Zilberman: The Geological Survey of Israel
Gal Yasur: The Geological Survey of Israel
Mareike Schmitt: Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry
Gerald H. Haug: Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract There is limited understanding of temperature and atmospheric circulation changes that accompany an Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) slowdown beyond the North Atlantic realm. A Peqi’in Cave (Israel) speleothem dated to the last interglacial period (LIG), 129–116 thousand years ago (ka), together with a large modern rainfall monitoring dataset, serve as the base for investigating past AMOC slowdown effects on the Eastern Mediterranean. Here, we reconstruct LIG temperatures and rainfall source using organic proxies (TEX86) and fluid inclusion water d-excess. The TEX86 data show a stepwise cooling from 19.8 ± 0.2° (ca. 128–126 ka) to 16.5 ± 0.6 °C (ca. 124–123 ka), while d-excess values decrease abruptly (ca. 126 ka). The d-excess shift suggests that rainfall was derived from more zonal Mediterranean air flow during the weakened AMOC interval. Decreasing rainfall d-excess trends over the last 25 years raise the question whether similar atmospheric circulation changes are also occurring today.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40880-z

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