Iberian Margin surface ocean cooling led freshening during Marine Isotope Stage 6 abrupt cooling events

Hongrui Zhang (), Yongsong Huang, Reto Wijker, Isabel Cacho, Judit Torner, Madeleine Santos, Oliver Kost, Bingbing Wei and Heather Stoll
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Hongrui Zhang: Geological Institute, ETH Zürich
Yongsong Huang: Brown University
Reto Wijker: Geological Institute, ETH Zürich
Isabel Cacho: Universitat de Barcelona
Judit Torner: Universitat de Barcelona
Madeleine Santos: Geological Institute, ETH Zürich
Oliver Kost: Geological Institute, ETH Zürich
Bingbing Wei: Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research
Heather Stoll: Geological Institute, ETH Zürich

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The high-resolution paleoclimate records on the Iberian Margin provide an excellent archive to study the mechanism of abrupt climate events. Previous studies on the Iberian Margin proposed that the surface cooling reconstructed by the alkenone-unsaturation index coincided with surface water freshening inferred from an elevated percentage of tetra-unsaturated alkenones, C37:4%. However, recent data indicate that marine alkenone producers, coccolithophores, do not produce more C37:4 in culture as salinity decreases. Hence, the causes for high C37:4 are still unclear. Here we provide detailed alkenone measurements to trace the producers of alkenones in combination with foraminiferal Mg/Ca and oxygen isotope ratios to trace salinity variations. The results indicate that all alkenones were produced by coccolithophores and the high C37:4% reflects decrease in SST instead of freshening. Furthermore, during the millennial climate changes, a surface freshening did not always trigger a cooling, but sometimes happened in the middle of multiple-stage cooling events and likely amplified the temperature decrease.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41142-8

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