Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, oxygen isotope records of foraminifera, and alkenone and Mg/Ca-based SST estimates for the time interval 3.40-3.18 Ma (Late Pliocene) from five North Atlantic and Caribbean sediment cores

The early Late Pliocene (3.6 to ~3.0 million years ago) is the last extended interval in Earth's history when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were comparable to today's and global climate was warmer. Yet a severe global glaciation during marine isotope stage (MIS) M2 interrupted this phase of global warmth ~3.30 million years ago, and is seen as a premature attempt of the climate system to establish an ice-age world. Our geochemical and palynological records from five marine sediment cores along a Caribbean to eastern North Atlantic transect show that increased Pacific-to-Atlantic flow via the Central American Seaway weakened the North Atlantic Current (NAC) and attendant northward heat transport prior to MIS M2. The consequent cooling of the northern high latitude oceans permitted expansion of the Greenland ice sheet during MIS M2, despite near-modern atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Before and after MIS M2, heat transport via the NAC was crucial in maintaining warm climates comparable to those predicted for the end of this century.

Coral Sr/Ca records from Bonaire Holocene corals

Proxy reconstructions of tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) that extend beyond the period of instrumental observations have primarily focused on centennial to millennial variability rather than on seasonal to multidecadal variability. Here we present monthly-resolved records of Sr/Ca (a proxy of SST) from fossil annually-banded Diploria strigosa corals from Bonaire (southern Caribbean Sea). The individual corals provide time-windows of up to 68 years length, and the total number of 295 years of record allows for assessing the natural range of seasonal to multidecadal SST variability in the western tropical Atlantic during snapshots of the mid- to late Holocene. Comparable to modern climate, the coral Sr/Ca records reveal that mid- to late Holocene SST was characterised by clear seasonal cycles, persistent quasi-biennial and prominent interannual as well as inter- to multidecadal-scale variability. However, the magnitude of SST variations on these timescales has varied over the last 6.2 ka. The coral records show increased seasonality during the mid-Holocene consistent with climate model simulations indicating that southern Caribbean SST seasonality is induced by insolation changes on orbital timescales, whereas internal dynamics of the climate system play an important role on shorter timescales. Interannual SST variability is linked to ocean-atmosphere interactions of Atlantic and Pacific origin. Pronounced interannual variability in the western tropical Atlantic is indicated by a 2.35 ka coral, possibly related to a strengthening of the variability of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation throughout the Holocene. Prominent inter- to multidecadal SST variability is evident in the coral records and slightly more pronounced in the mid-Holocene. We finally argue that our coral data provide a target for studying Holocene climate variability on seasonal and interannual to multidecadal timescales, when using further numerical models and high-resolution proxy data.

High resolution stable isotope and Mg/Ca record of sediment core MD02-2550C2

An early Holocene record from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) reveals climatic and hydrologic changes during the interval from 10.5 to 7 thousand calendar years before present from paired analyses of Mg/Ca and d18O on foraminiferal calcite. The sea surface temperature record based on foraminiferal Mg/Ca contains six oscillations and an overall ~1.5°C warming that appears to be similar to the September-March insolation difference. The d18O of seawater in the GOM (d18OGOM) record contains six oscillations, including a -0.8 per mil excursion that may be associated with the "8.2 ka climate event" or a broader climate anomaly. Faunal census records from three GOM cores exhibit similar changes, suggesting subcentennial-scale variability in the incursions of Caribbean waters into the GOM. Overall, our results provide evidence that the subtropics were characterized by decadal- to centennial-scale climatic and hydrologic variability during the early Holocene.