References

Biogeosciences

1726-4189

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/bg-10-5663-2013

Equatorial Pacific peak in biological production regulated by nutrient and upwelling during the late Pliocene/early Pleistocene cooling

Etourneau

¹ Robinson

R. S.

² Martinez

³ Schneider

⁴

Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UMR7159 LOCEAN, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France

Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA

Université Bordeaux 1, UMR5805 EPOC, avenue des facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France

Institut für Geowissenschaften, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10, 24118 Kiel, Germany

27 08 2013

10 8 5663 5670

2013

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/5663/2013/bg-10-5663-2013.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/10/5663/2013/bg-10-5663-2013.pdf

The largest increase in export production in the eastern Pacific of the last 5.3 Myr (million years) occurred between 2.2 and 1.6 Myr, a time of major climatic and oceanographic reorganization in the region. Here, we investigate the causes of this event using reconstructions of export production, nutrient supply and oceanic conditions across the Pliocene–Pleistocene in the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) for the last 3.2 Myr. Our results indicate that the export production peak corresponds to a cold interval marked by high nutrient supply relative to consumption, as revealed by the low bulk sedimentary 15N/14N (δ15N) and alkenone-derived sea surface temperature (SST) values. This &sim;0.6 million year long episode of enhanced delivery of nutrients to the surface of the EEP was predominantly initiated through the upwelling of nutrient-enriched water sourced in high latitudes. In addition, this phenomenon was likely promoted by the regional intensification of upwelling in response to the development of intense Walker and Hadley atmospheric circulations. Increased nutrient consumption in the polar oceans and enhanced denitrification in the equatorial regions restrained nutrient supply and availability and terminated the high export production event.

References 1

Altabet, M. A. and Francois, R.: Sedimentary nitrogen isotopic ratio as a recorder for surface nitrate utilization, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 8, 103–116, 1994.

Billups, K., Aufdenkampe, A., and Hays, R.: Late Miocene through early Pleistocene nutrient utilization and export production in the Antarctic Zone of the Southern Ocean, Global Planet. Change, 100, 353–361, 2013.

Bolton, C. T., Gibbs, S. J., and Wilson, P. A.: Evolution of nutricline dynamics in the equatorial Pacific during the late Pliocene, Paleoceanography, 25, PA1207, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009PA001821">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009PA001821</a>, 2010.

Bolton, C. T., Lawrence, K. T., Gibbs, S. J., Wilson, P. A., Cleaveland, L. C., and Herbert, T.: Glacial-interglacial productivity changes recorded by alkenones and microfossils in late Pliocene eastern equatorial Pacific and Atlantic upwelling zones, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 295, 401–411, 2011.

Brzezinski, M. A., Baines, S. B., Balch, W. M., Beucher, C. P., Chai, F., Dugdale, R. C., Krause, J. W., Landry, M. R., Marchi, A., Measures, C. I., Nelson, D. M., Parker, A. E., Poulton, A., Seplph, K. E., Strutton, P. G., Taylor, A. G., and Twining B.: Co-limitation of diatoms by iron and silicic acid in the equatorial Pacific, Deep-Sea Res. II, 58, 493–511, 2011.

Cortese, G., Gersonde, R., Hillenbrand, C.-L., and Kuhn, G.: Opal sedimentation shifts in the world over the last 15 Myr, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 224, 509–527, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2004.05.035">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2004.05.035</a>, 2004.

Dekens, P. S., Ravelo, A. C., and McCarthy, M. D.: Warm upwelling regions in the Pliocene warm period, Paleoceanography, 22, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006PA001394">https://doi.org/10.1029/2006PA001394</a>, 2007.

Dubois, C. and Kienast, M.: Spatial reorganization in the equatorial divergence in the Eastern Tropical Pacific during the last 150 kyr, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048325">https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048325</a>, 2011.

Dubois, C., Kienast, M., Kienast, S., Normandeau, C., Calvert, S. E., Herbert, T. D., and Mix, A.: Millenial-scale variations in hydrography and biogeochemistry in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific over the last 100 kyr, Quarter. Sci. Rev., 30, 210–223, 2011.

Dugdale, R. C., Lyle, M., Wilkerson, F. P., Chai, F., Barber, T., and Peng, T. H.: Influence of equatorial diatom processes on Si deposition and atmospheric CO2 cycles at glacial/interglacial timescales, Paleoceanography, 19, 233, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003PA000929">https://doi.org/10.1029/2003PA000929</a>, 2004.

Etourneau, J., Martinez, P., Blanz, T., and Schneider, R.: Pliocene–Pleistocene variability of upwelling activity, productivity, and nutrient cycling in the Benguela region, Geology, 37, 871–874, 2009.

Etourneau, J., Schneider, R., Blanz, T., and Martinez, P.: Intensification of the Walker and Hadley atmospheric circulations during the Pliocene–Pleistocene climate transition, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 297, 103–110, 2010.

Etourneau, J., Ehlert, C., Frank, M., Martinez, P., and Schneider, R.: Contribution of changes in opal productivity and nutrient distribution in the coastal upwelling systems to late Pliocene/early Pleistocene cooling, Climat. Past, 8, 1435–1445, 2012.

Farrell, J. W., Pedersen, T. F., Calvert, S. E., and Nielsen, B.: Glacial-interglacial changes in nutrient utilization in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, Nature, 377, 514–517, 1995.

Filippelli, G. M., Latimer, J. C., Murray, R. W., and Flores, J. A.: Productivity records from the Southern Ocean and the equatorial Pacific Ocean: Testing the Glacial Shelf- Nutrient Hypothesis, Deep Sea Res. II, 54/21-22, 2443–2452, 2007.

Flores, J. A., Filippelli, G. M., Sierro, F., and Latimer, J.: The "White Ocean" Hypothesis: A late Pleistocene Southern Ocean governed by Coccolithophores and driven by phosphorus, Front. Aquat. Microbiol., 3, PA3011, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00233">https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00233</a>, 2012.

François, R., Frank, M., Rutgers van der Loeff, M. M., and Bacon, M. P.: 230Th normalization: an essential tool for interpreting sedimentary fluxes during the late Quaternary, Paleoceanography, 19, PA1018, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003PA000939">https://doi.org/10.1029/2003PA000939</a>, 2004.

Galbraith, E. D., Kienast, M., Jaccard, S. L., Pedersen, T. F., Brunelle, B. G., Sigman, D. M., and Kiefer T.: Consistent relationship between global climate and surface nitrate utilization in the western subarctic Pacific throughout the last 500 ka, Paleoceanography, 23, PA2212, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007PA001518">https://doi.org/10.1029/2007PA001518</a>, 2008.

Giuliani, S., Capotondi, L., Maffioli, P., Langone, L., Giglio, F., Yam, R., Frignani, M., and Ravaioli, M.: Paleoenvironmental changes in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean (Antarctica) during the past 2.6 Ma, Global Planet. Change, 77, 34–48, 2011.

Gripp, A. E. and Gordon, R. G.: Current plate velocities relative to the hotspots incorporating the NUVEL-1 global plate motion model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 1109–1112, 1990.

Haug, G. H., Tiedemann, R., Zahn, R., and Ravelo, A. C.: Role of Panama uplift on oceanic freshwater balance, Geology, 29, 207–210, 2001.

Hillenbrand, C.-D. and Cortese, G.: Polar stratification: A critical view from the Southern Ocean, Palaeogeog., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol., 242, 240–252, 2006.

Karas, C., Nürnberg, D., Gupta, A. K., Tiedemann, R., Mohan, K., and Bickert, T.: Mid Pliocene climate change amplified by a switch in Indonesian subsurface throughflow, Nature Geosci., 2, 434–438, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NGE520">https://doi.org/10.1038/NGE520</a>, 2009.

Kessler, W. S.: The circulation of the eastern tropical Pacific, A review, Prog. Oceanogr., 69, 181–217, 2006.

Kienast, M., Kienast, S. S., Calvert, S. E., Eglinton, T. I., Mollenhauer, G., François, R., and Mix, A.: Eastern Pacific cooling and Atlantic overturning circulation during the last deglaciation, Nature, 443, 846–849, 2006.

Lawrence, K. T., Liu, Z., and Herbert, T. D.: Evolution of the eastern tropical Pacific through Plio-Pleistocene glaciation, Science, 312, 79–83, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1120395">https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1120395</a>, 2006.

Levitus, S. and Boyer, T. P.: World Ocean Atlas 1994,World Ocean Atlas 1994: Volume 4: Temperature. NOAA Atlas NESDIS. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1994.

Lisiecki, L. E. and Raymo, M. E.: A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records, Paleoceanography, 20, PA1003, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004PA001071">https://doi.org/10.1029/2004PA001071</a>, 2005.

Liu, Z., Altabet, M. A., and Herbert, T. D.: Plio-Pleistocene denitrification in the eastern tropical North Pacific: Intensification at 2.1 Ma, Geochem. Geophys. Geosys., 9, Q11006, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GC002044">https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GC002044</a>, 2008.

Loubere, P.: Marine control of biological production in the eastern equatorial Pacific, Nature, 406, 497–500, 2000.

Martinez, P. and Robinson, R. S.: Increase in water column denitrification during the last deglaciation: the influence of oxygen demand in the eastern equatorial Pacific, Biogeosciences, 7, 1–9, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-1-2010">https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-1-2010</a>, 2010.

Martinez, P., Lamy, F., Robinson, R. S., Pichevin, L., and Billy, I.: A typical δ15N variations at the southern boundary of the East Pacific oxygen minimum zone over the last 50 ka, Quart. Sci. Rev., 25, 3017–3028, 2006.

Martinez-Garcia, A., Rosell-Melé, A., Jaccard, S. L., Geibert, W., Sigman, D. S., and Haug, G. H.: Southern Ocean dust-climate coupling over the past four million years, Nature, 476, 312–316, 2011.

März, C., Schnetger, B., and Brumsack, H.-J.: Nutrient leakage from the North Pacific to the Bering Sea (IODP Site U1341) following the onset of Northern Hemispheric Glaciation, Paleoceanography, 28, 68–78, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/palo.20011">https://doi.org/10.1002/palo.20011</a>, in press, 2013.

Mix, A. C., Tiedemann, R., and Blum, P.: Site 1239: Proceedings Ocean Drilling Program Initial Reports, 202, College Station, Tex, 2003.

Murray, R. W., Leinen, M., and Knowlton, C. W.: Links between iron input and opal deposition in the Pleistocene equatorial Pacific Ocean, Nature Geosci., 5, 270–274, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1422">https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1422</a>, 2012.

Pena, L. D., Cacho, I., Ferretti, P., and Hall, M. A.: El Niño–Southern Oscillation–like variability during glacial terminations and interlatitudinal teleconnections, Paleoceanography, 23, PA3101, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001620">https://doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001620</a>, 2008.

Pennington, T. J., Mahoney, K. L., Kuhawara, V. S., Kolber, D. D., Calienes, R., and Chavez, F. P.: Primary production in the eastern tropical Pacific, A review, Prog. Oceanogr., 69, 285–317, 2006.

Philander, S. G. and Fedorov, A. V.: Role of tropics in changing the response to Milankovitch forcing some three million years ago, Paleoceanography, 18, PA1045, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002PA000837">https://doi.org/10.1029/2002PA000837</a>, 2003.

Pisias, N. G., Mayer, L. A., and Mix, A. C.: Paleoceanography of the eastern equatorial Pacific during the Neogene: synthesis of Leg 138 drilling results, Proc. Ocean Drill. Progr. Sci. Res.,138, College Station, Tex, 1995.

Rafter, P. and Charles, C. D.: Pleistocene equatorial Pacific dynamics inferred from the zonal asymmetry in sedimentary nitrogen isotopes, Paleoceanography, 27, PA3102, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012PA002367">https://doi.org/10.1029/2012PA002367</a>, 2012.

Rincón-Martinez, D., Lamy, F., Contreras, S., Leduc, G., Bard, E., Saukel, C., Blanz, T., Mackensen, A., and Tiedemann, R.: More humid interglacials in Ecuador during the past 500 kyr linked to latitudinal shifts of the equatorial front and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the eastern tropical Pacific, Paleoceanography, 25, PA2210, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009PA001868">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009PA001868</a>, 2010.

Robinson, R. S., Martinez, P., Pena, L. D., and Cacho, I.: Nitrogen isotopic evidence for deglacial changes in nutrient supply in the eastern equatorial Pacific, Paleoceanography, 24, PA4213, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001702">https://doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001702</a>, 2009.

Rodgers, K. B., Blanke, B., Madec, G., Aumont, O., Ciais, P., and Dutay, J.: Extratropical sources of Equatorial Pacific upwelling in an OGCM, Geophys. Rese. Lett., 30, 1084, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016003">https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016003</a>, 2003.

Sarmiento, J. L., Gruber, N., Brzezinski, M. A., and Dunne, J.: High-latitude controls of thermocline nutrients and low latitude biological productivity, Nature, 427, 56–60, 2004.

Schulz, M., Berger, W. H., Sarnthein, M., and Grootes, P. M.: Amplitude variations of 1470-year climate oscillations during the 100,000 years linked to fluctuations of continental ice mass, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 3385–3388, 1999.

Sigman, D. M., Altabet, M., Michener, R., McCorkle, D. C., Fry, B., and Holmes, R. M.: Natural abundance-level measurement of the nitrogen isotopic composition of oceanic nitrate: An adaptation of the ammonia diffusion method, Mar. Chem., 57, 227–242, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4203(97)00009-1">https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4203(97)00009-1</a>, 1997.

Steph, S., Tiedemann, R., Prange, M., Groeneveld, J., Schulz, M., Timmermann, A., Nürnberg, D., Rülhemann, C., Saukel, C., and Haug, G.: Early Pliocene increase in the thermohaline overturning preconditioned the development of the modern equatorial Pacific cold tongue: Paleoceanography, 25, PA2202, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001645">https://doi.org/10.1029/2008PA001645</a>, 2009.

Toggweiler, J. R., Dixon, D., and Broecker, W .S.: The Peru upwelling and the ventilation of the South Pacific thermocline, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 20467–20497, 1991.