Pancost
Richard D.
Pancost
Richard D.
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ArticleInsensitivity of alkenone carbon isotopes to atmospheric CO2 at low to moderate CO2 levels(European Geosciences Union, 2019-03-27) Badger, Marcus P. S. ; Chalk, Thomas B. ; Foster, Gavin L. ; Bown, Paul R. ; Gibbs, Samantha J. ; Sexton, Philip F. ; Schmidt, Daniela N. ; Pälike, Heiko ; Mackensen, Andreas ; Pancost, Richard D.Atmospheric pCO2 is a critical component of the global carbon system and is considered to be the major control of Earth's past, present, and future climate. Accurate and precise reconstructions of its concentration through geological time are therefore crucial to our understanding of the Earth system. Ice core records document pCO2 for the past 800 kyr, but at no point during this interval were CO2 levels higher than today. Interpretation of older pCO2 has been hampered by discrepancies during some time intervals between two of the main ocean-based proxy methods used to reconstruct pCO2: the carbon isotope fractionation that occurs during photosynthesis as recorded by haptophyte biomarkers (alkenones) and the boron isotope composition (δ11B) of foraminifer shells. Here, we present alkenone and δ11B-based pCO2 reconstructions generated from the same samples from the Pliocene and across a Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycle at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 999. We find a muted response to pCO2 in the alkenone record compared to contemporaneous ice core and δ11B records, suggesting caution in the interpretation of alkenone-based records at low pCO2 levels. This is possibly caused by the physiology of CO2 uptake in the haptophytes. Our new understanding resolves some of the inconsistencies between the proxies and highlights that caution may be required when interpreting alkenone-based reconstructions of pCO2.
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ArticleCauses of ice age intensification across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition(National Academy of Sciences, 2017-11-27) Chalk, Thomas B. ; Hain, Mathis P. ; Foster, Gavin L. ; Rohling, Eelco J. ; Sexton, Philip F. ; Badger, Marcus P. S. ; Cherry, Soraya G. ; Hasenfratz, Adam P. ; Haug, Gerald H. ; Jaccard, Samuel L. ; Martínez-García, Alfredo ; Pälike, Heiko ; Pancost, Richard D. ; Wilson, Paul A.During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 1,200–800 kya), Earth’s orbitally paced ice age cycles intensified, lengthened from ∼40,000 (∼40 ky) to ∼100 ky, and became distinctly asymmetrical. Testing hypotheses that implicate changing atmospheric CO2 levels as a driver of the MPT has proven difficult with available observations. Here, we use orbitally resolved, boron isotope CO2 data to show that the glacial to interglacial CO2 difference increased from ∼43 to ∼75 μatm across the MPT, mainly because of lower glacial CO2 levels. Through carbon cycle modeling, we attribute this decline primarily to the initiation of substantive dust-borne iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean during peak glacial stages. We also observe a twofold steepening of the relationship between sea level and CO2-related climate forcing that is suggestive of a change in the dynamics that govern ice sheet stability, such as that expected from the removal of subglacial regolith or interhemispheric ice sheet phase-locking. We argue that neither ice sheet dynamics nor CO2 change in isolation can explain the MPT. Instead, we infer that the MPT was initiated by a change in ice sheet dynamics and that longer and deeper post-MPT ice ages were sustained by carbon cycle feedbacks related to dust fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a consequence of larger ice sheets.
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ArticleThe discovery of new deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities in the Southern Ocean and implications for biogeography(Public Library of Science, 2012-01-03) Rogers, Alex D. ; Tyler, Paul A. ; Connelly, Douglas P. ; Copley, Jonathan T. ; James, Rachael H. ; Larter, Robert D. ; Linse, Katrin ; Mills, Rachel A. ; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C. ; Pancost, Richard D. ; Pearce, David A. ; Polunin, Nicholas V. C. ; German, Christopher R. ; Shank, Timothy M. ; Boersch-Supan, Philipp H. ; Alker, Belinda J. ; Aquilina, Alfred ; Bennett, Sarah A. ; Clarke, Andrew ; Dinley, Robert J. J. ; Graham, Alastair G. C. ; Green, Darryl R. H. ; Hawkes, Jeffrey A. ; Hepburn, Laura ; Hilario, Ana ; Huvenne, Veerle A. I. ; Marsh, Leigh ; Ramirez-Llodra, Eva ; Reid, William D. K. ; Roterman, Christopher N. ; Sweeting, Christopher J. ; Thatje, Sven ; Zwirglmaier, KatrinSince the first discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Galápagos Rift in 1977, numerous vent sites and endemic faunal assemblages have been found along mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins at low to mid latitudes. These discoveries have suggested the existence of separate biogeographic provinces in the Atlantic and the North West Pacific, the existence of a province including the South West Pacific and Indian Ocean, and a separation of the North East Pacific, North East Pacific Rise, and South East Pacific Rise. The Southern Ocean is known to be a region of high deep-sea species diversity and centre of origin for the global deep-sea fauna. It has also been proposed as a gateway connecting hydrothermal vents in different oceans but is little explored because of extreme conditions. Since 2009 we have explored two segments of the East Scotia Ridge (ESR) in the Southern Ocean using a remotely operated vehicle. In each segment we located deep-sea hydrothermal vents hosting high-temperature black smokers up to 382.8°C and diffuse venting. The chemosynthetic ecosystems hosted by these vents are dominated by a new yeti crab (Kiwa n. sp.), stalked barnacles, limpets, peltospiroid gastropods, anemones, and a predatory sea star. Taxa abundant in vent ecosystems in other oceans, including polychaete worms (Siboglinidae), bathymodiolid mussels, and alvinocaridid shrimps, are absent from the ESR vents. These groups, except the Siboglinidae, possess planktotrophic larvae, rare in Antarctic marine invertebrates, suggesting that the environmental conditions of the Southern Ocean may act as a dispersal filter for vent taxa. Evidence from the distinctive fauna, the unique community structure, and multivariate analyses suggest that the Antarctic vent ecosystems represent a new vent biogeographic province. However, multivariate analyses of species present at the ESR and at other deep-sea hydrothermal vents globally indicate that vent biogeography is more complex than previously recognised.
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ArticleAn interlaboratory study of TEX86 and BIT analysis of sediments, extracts, and standard mixtures(John Wiley & Sons, 2013-12-20) Schouten, Stefan ; Hopmans, Ellen C. ; Rosell-Mele, Antoni ; Pearson, Ann ; Adam, Pierre ; Bauersachs, Thorsten ; Bard, Edouard ; Bernasconi, Stefano M. ; Bianchi, Thomas S. ; Brocks, Jochen J. ; Carlson, Laura Truxal ; Castaneda, Isla S. ; Derenne, Sylvie ; Selver, Ayca Dogrul ; Dutta, Koushik ; Eglinton, Timothy I. ; Fosse, Celine ; Galy, Valier ; Grice, Kliti ; Hinrichs, Kai-Uwe ; Huang, Yongsong ; Huguet, Arnaud ; Huguet, Carme ; Hurley, Sarah ; Ingalls, Anitra ; Jia, Guodong ; Keely, Brendan ; Knappy, Chris ; Kondo, Miyuki ; Krishnan, Srinath ; Lincoln, Sara ; Lipp, Julius S. ; Mangelsdorf, Kai ; Martínez-Garcia, Alfredo ; Menot, Guillemette ; Mets, Anchelique ; Mollenhauer, Gesine ; Ohkouchi, Naohiko ; Ossebaar, Jort ; Pagani, Mark ; Pancost, Richard D. ; Pearson, Emma J. ; Peterse, Francien ; Reichart, Gert-Jan ; Schaeffer, Philippe ; Schmitt, Gaby ; Schwark, Lorenz ; Shah, Sunita R. ; Smith, Richard W. ; Smittenberg, Rienk H. ; Summons, Roger E. ; Takano, Yoshinori ; Talbot, Helen M. ; Taylor, Kyle W. R. ; Tarozo, Rafael ; Uchida, Masao ; van Dongen, Bart E. ; Van Mooy, Benjamin A. S. ; Wang, Jinxiang ; Warren, Courtney ; Weijers, Johan W. H. ; Werne, Josef P. ; Woltering, Martijn ; Xie, Shucheng ; Yamamoto, Masanobu ; Yang, Huan ; Zhang, Chuanlun L. ; Zhang, Yige ; Zhao, Meixun ; Sinninghe Damste, Jaap S.Two commonly used proxies based on the distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are the TEX86 (TetraEther indeX of 86 carbon atoms) paleothermometer for sea surface temperature reconstructions and the BIT (Branched Isoprenoid Tetraether) index for reconstructing soil organic matter input to the ocean. An initial round-robin study of two sediment extracts, in which 15 laboratories participated, showed relatively consistent TEX86 values (reproducibility ±3–4°C when translated to temperature) but a large spread in BIT measurements (reproducibility ±0.41 on a scale of 0–1). Here we report results of a second round-robin study with 35 laboratories in which three sediments, one sediment extract, and two mixtures of pure, isolated GDGTs were analyzed. The results for TEX86 and BIT index showed improvement compared to the previous round-robin study. The reproducibility, indicating interlaboratory variation, of TEX86 values ranged from 1.3 to 3.0°C when translated to temperature. These results are similar to those of other temperature proxies used in paleoceanography. Comparison of the results obtained from one of the three sediments showed that TEX86 and BIT indices are not significantly affected by interlaboratory differences in sediment extraction techniques. BIT values of the sediments and extracts were at the extremes of the index with values close to 0 or 1, and showed good reproducibility (ranging from 0.013 to 0.042). However, the measured BIT values for the two GDGT mixtures, with known molar ratios of crenarchaeol and branched GDGTs, had intermediate BIT values and showed poor reproducibility and a large overestimation of the “true” (i.e., molar-based) BIT index. The latter is likely due to, among other factors, the higher mass spectrometric response of branched GDGTs compared to crenarchaeol, which also varies among mass spectrometers. Correction for this different mass spectrometric response showed a considerable improvement in the reproducibility of BIT index measurements among laboratories, as well as a substantially improved estimation of molar-based BIT values. This suggests that standard mixtures should be used in order to obtain consistent, and molar-based, BIT values.