Closure of the Bering Strait caused Mid-Pleistocene Transition cooling

Sev Kender (), Ana Christina Ravelo, Savannah Worne, George E. A. Swann, Melanie J. Leng, Hirofumi Asahi, Julia Becker, Henrieka Detlef, Ivano W. Aiello, Dyke Andreasen and Ian R. Hall
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Sev Kender: University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
Ana Christina Ravelo: University of California
Savannah Worne: University of Nottingham, University Park
George E. A. Swann: University of Nottingham, University Park
Melanie J. Leng: British Geological Survey
Hirofumi Asahi: Kochi University
Julia Becker: State Museum of Natural History
Henrieka Detlef: Aarhus University
Ivano W. Aiello: Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Dyke Andreasen: University of California
Ian R. Hall: Cardiff University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) is characterised by cooling and lengthening glacial cycles from 600–1200 ka, thought to be driven by reductions in glacial CO2 in particular from ~900 ka onwards. Reduced high latitude upwelling, a process that retains CO2 within the deep ocean over glacials, could have aided drawdown but has so far not been constrained in either hemisphere over the MPT. Here, we find that reduced nutrient upwelling in the Bering Sea, and North Pacific Intermediate Water expansion, coincided with the MPT and became more persistent at ~900 ka. We propose reduced upwelling was controlled by expanding sea ice and North Pacific Intermediate Water formation, which may have been enhanced by closure of the Bering Strait. The regional extent of North Pacific Intermediate Water across the subarctic northwest Pacific would have contributed to lower atmospheric CO2 and global cooling during the MPT.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07828-0

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