Link Between Oceanic Heat Transport, Thermohaline Circulation, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Early Pliocene Atlantic

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Link Between Oceanic Heat Transport, Thermohaline Circulation, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Early Pliocene Atlantic Link between oceanic heat transport, thermohaline circulation, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the early Pliocene Atlantic K. Billups* Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA A. C. Ravelo Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA J. C. Zachos Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA R. D. Norris Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Clark 117, MS-23, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1541, USA ABSTRACT have been triggered directly or indirectly by the Planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotope records from the western and eastern tropical restriction of surface-water flow through the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans suggest a southward shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone Central American seaway. toward its modern location between 4.4 and 4.3 Ma. A concomitant shift in the carbon isotope compositions of Atlantic benthic foraminifera provides strong evidence for an increased thermo- METHODS haline overturn at this time. We suggest that the southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and associated change in trade-wind circulation altered equatorial surface hydrography, Analytical increased the advection of warmer and more saline surface waters into the subtropical and North Sample preparation and stable isotope analy- Atlantic, and contributed to thermohaline overturn. ses from ODP Sites 925, 851, and 959 follow standard procedures summarized in our previ- INTRODUCTION and Atlantic (Site 959, Norris, 1998) sites sample ous studies (Table 1). Analytical precision is Ocean heat transport from the equatorial re- the eastern equatorial surface hydrography, which better than 0.05‰ (δ13C) and 0.08‰ (δ18O). In gions to the high latitudes is a critical component is highly sensitive to changes in the intensity and accordance with our previous studies, Site 806 of the global climate system. The Atlantic Gulf direction of the trade winds. By characterizing Globigerinoides sacculifer (without a sac-like Stream, in particular, carries warm water north- changes in the surface hydrography at each site final chamber) and Globorotalia tumida were ward from the subtropics and supplies heat to (e.g., mixed-layer depth), we draw inferences picked from the 355–500 µm size fractions. high latitudes. In the western tropical Atlantic, about the character of the wind field and the posi- Age assignments for Sites 851 and 925 reflect the seasonal intensification of the southeast tion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. tuning to Northern Hemisphere summer insola- trades, the direction of warm surface currents, We propose that in the early Pliocene a south- tion (Shackleton et al., 1995a; Tiedemann and and the associated migration of the Intertropical ward shift of the zone occurred between 4.4 and Franz, 1997, respectively). We use biostrati- Convergence Zone (Fig. 1) are linked to the 4.3 Ma. This event most likely reflects a change graphic data for Sites 806 (Mayer et al., 1993) amount of heat transport into the subtropics in the equatorial surface currents that allowed an and 959 (Norris, 1998) on the Berggren et al. (Philander and Pakanowski, 1986a, 1986b). increased proportion of warm water to flow north (1995) time scale. The time scales of Shackleton Observational and modeling studies suggest into the subtropics, thereby contributing to deep- et al. (1995a) and Berggren et al. (1995) are com- that northward heat advection and thermohaline water formation in the North Atlantic. The shift parable. Age uncertainties are <20 k.y. among overturn in the Atlantic were not as efficient until in the Intertropical Convergence Zone and asso- tuned age models and probably <100 k.y. among the closure of the Central American seaway be- ciated surface- and deep-ocean responses may records based on biostratigraphic data. tween 3 and 5 Ma (Keigwin, 1982; Mikolajewicz et al., 1993; Haug and Tiedemann, 1998). The on- set of large-scale Northern Hemisphere glaciation Longitude may have been closely linked to increased pole- 140˚E180˚W140˚W 100˚W 180˚W60140˚W 100˚W ˚W ward moisture transport as a result of a strength- summer winter ened Gulf Stream system (e.g., Stanley, 1995). 20˚N ITCZ We reconstruct equatorial sea-surface hydrogra- 10˚N NECC NECC 806 EUC ITCZ phy during the early Pliocene by using the oxygen 0˚N • EUC • 851/ SEC 846 • SEC • isotope composition of planktonic foraminifera 10˚S from four near-equatorial locations (Fig. 1, Table A B 1). The western Atlantic (Ocean Drilling Program [ODP] Site 925, Billups et al., 1998a) and Pacific Latitude 20˚N 1 ITCZ NBCC (Site 806, this study) sites are located in regions NBCC 10˚N that supply warm and saline waters to the western NECC 959 ITCZITC GC GC • EUC • • EUC • boundary currents of these oceans. The eastern 0˚N 925/ Z Pacific (Site 851, Cannariato and Ravelo, 1997) 926/ SEC 10˚S 929 SEC summer C winter D *Present address: Department of Earth and Plan- 20˚S etary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, 60˚W2040˚W2020˚W 0˚W ˚E 40˚W 20˚W 0˚W ˚E Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Figure 1. Locations of Ocean Drilling Program Sites 806, 851, 846, 925, 926, 929, and 959. Italics 1GSA Data Repository item 9929, Table with ages, mark sites for deep-water reconstructions. Equatorial Pacific (A and B) and Atlantic (C and D) G. sacculifer δ18O, G. tumida δ18O, G. tumida– surface currents are as follows: SEC—South Equatorial Current; NECC—North Equatorial G. sacculifer ∆δ18O, is available on request from Docu- Counter Current; EUC—Equatorial Undercurrent (open arrows); NBCC—North Brazil Coastal ments Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO Current; GC—Guinea Current; ITCZ—Intertropical Convergence Zone. Dashed arrows signify 80301-9140. E-mail: [email protected]. relatively weak and solid arrows indicate relatively strong transport of surface water. Data Repository item 9929 contains additional material related to this article. Geology; April 1999; v. 27; no. 4; p. 319–322; 4 figures; 1 table. 319 Intertropical Convergence Zone (Cannariato and Ravelo, 1997). In the western equatorial Atlantic, a steplike 0.2‰ decrease occurred in the planktonic δ18O values at 4.36 Ma (Fig. 3C). With the exception of events at 4.5 and 4.55 Ma, the G. sacculifer– N. dutertrei gradient remained relatively stable between 4.7 and 3.2 Ma. This steplike decrease in planktonic δ18O values most likely reflects a freshening of surface seawater in response to a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (Billups et al., 1998a). At the same time (ca. 4.35 Ma) in the eastern Equatorial Sea-Surface Hydrography cause G. tumida does not occur in the Atlantic, Atlantic at Site 959, the G. sacculifer–N. dutertrei Reconstructions we rely on the δ18O values of Neogloboquadrina δ18O difference decreased significantly primarily Previous studies have demonstrated how the dutertrei, a thermocline dweller, to estimate past due to a decrease in the amplitude of N. dutertrei δ18O values of planktonic foraminifera can be changes in relative mixed-layer depth. δ18O fluctuations (Fig. 3D). These observations used to reconstruct past changes in the relative can be explained by a decrease in the thermal depths of the tropical mixed layer and thermo- RESULTS gradient within the upper thermocline (Norris, cline (Ravelo and Fairbanks, 1992; Ravelo and In the western equatorial Pacific (Site 806), the 1998). A weaker subsurface temperature gradient Shackleton, 1995; Cannariato and Ravelo, 1997; G. sacculifer–G. tumida δ18O gradient remained after 4.35 Ma more closely reflects the hydrogra- Norris, 1998). In environments with deep mixed relatively small and essentially stable between 3 phy within the modern Guinea Current (Norris, layers throughout the year, such as the western and 5 Ma (Fig. 3A). These results suggest that the 1998). In contrast, a stronger thermal gradient equatorial Atlantic and Pacific, the photic-zone thermal gradients in the photic zone remained prior to 4.35 Ma is more characteristic of up- temperature gradient (and hence the vertical small and the mixed layer remained deep. This welling regimes produced by the westward ad- foraminiferal δ18O gradient) is small, because observation is consistent with a stable, deep vection of surface water within the South Equa- the thermocline is below the base of the photic mixed layer observed today (e.g., Fig. 2A). torial Current (Voituriez and Herbland, 1982). zone (Fig. 2, A and C). In regions where the In the eastern equatorial Pacific G. tumida The shift in the thermal structure of the thermo- depth of the thermocline is more variable, such δ18O values increased between 4.4 and 4.3 Ma, cline at 4.35 Ma can be related to a decrease in the as the eastern equatorial Pacific and Atlantic, the reflecting a temperature decrease at the bottom influence of the South Equatorial Current at Site large photic-zone temperature range results in of the photic zone due to the shoaling of the 959, which in turn reflects a weakening of the relatively large foraminiferal δ18O gradients thermocline (Fig. 3B). A decrease in mixed-layer southeasterly trades and a southward shift of the (Fig. 2, B and D). At the Pacific sites we recon- depth is consistent with an oceanic response to a Intertropical Convergence Zone. struct photic zone temperature gradients by weakening or southward shift of the North Equa- using G. sacculifer, a mixed-layer dweller, torial Counter Current. Both changes could be DISCUSSION together with G. tumida, a deep dweller that is due to a decrease in the intensity of southeasterly Planktonic foraminiferal δ18O records from constrained to the bottom of the photic zone. Be- trade winds, allowing a southward retreat of the the tropical ocean provide a compelling case for a surface-ocean response to a southward shift in Temperature (˚C) the Intertropical Convergence Zone between 4.4 1020 30 1020 30 1020 30 1020 30 and 4.3 Ma.
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