Umling Natalie E.

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Umling
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Natalie E.
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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Article
    Less remineralized carbon in the intermediate-depth south Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 1
    (American Geophysical Union, 2019-07-24) Lacerra, Matthew ; Lund, David C. ; Gebbie, Geoffrey A. ; Oppo, Delia W. ; Yu, Jimin ; Schmittner, Andreas ; Umling, Natalie E.
    The last deglaciation (~20–10 kyr BP) was characterized by a major shift in Earth's climate state, when the global mean surface temperature rose ~4 °C and the concentration of atmospheric CO2 increased ~80 ppmv. Model simulations suggest that the initial 30 ppmv rise in atmospheric CO2 may have been driven by reduced efficiency of the biological pump or enhanced upwelling of carbon‐rich waters from the abyssal ocean. Here we evaluate these hypotheses using benthic foraminiferal B/Ca (a proxy for deep water [CO32−]) from a core collected at 1,100‐m water depth in the Southwest Atlantic. Our results imply that [CO32−] increased by 22 ± 2 μmol/kg early in Heinrich Stadial 1, or a decrease in ΣCO2 of approximately 40 μmol/kg, assuming there were no significant changes in alkalinity. Our data imply that remineralized phosphate declined by approximately 0.3 μmol/kg during Heinrich Stadial 1, equivalent to 40% of the modern remineralized signal at this location. Because tracer inversion results indicate remineralized phosphate at the core site reflects the integrated effect of export production in the sub‐Antarctic, our results imply that biological productivity in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean was reduced early in the deglaciation, contributing to the initial rise in atmospheric CO2.
  • Article
    Atlantic circulation and ice sheet influences on upper South Atlantic temperatures during the last deglaciation
    (American Geophysical Union, 2019-05-28) Umling, Natalie E. ; Oppo, Delia W. ; Chen, P. ; Yu, Jimin ; Liu, Zhengyu ; Yan, Mi ; Gebbie, Geoffrey A. ; Lund, David C. ; Pietro, Kathryn R. ; Jin, Z. D. ; Huang, Kuo-Fang ; Costa, Karen ; Toledo, Felipe Antonio de Lima
    Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) disruption during the last deglaciation is hypothesized to have caused large subsurface ocean temperature anomalies, but records from key regions are not available to test this hypothesis, and other possible drivers of warming have not been fully considered. Here, we present the first reliable evidence for subsurface warming in the South Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 1, confirming the link between large‐scale heat redistribution and AMOC. Warming extends across the Bølling‐Allerød despite predicted cooling at this time, thus spanning intervals of both weak and strong AMOC indicating another forcing mechanism that may have been previously overlooked. Transient model simulations and quasi‐conservative water mass tracers suggest that reduced northward upper ocean heat transport was responsible for the early deglacial (Heinrich Stadial 1) accumulation of heat at our shallower (~1,100 m) site. In contrast, the results suggest that warming at our deeper site (~1,900 m) site was dominated by southward advection of North Atlantic middepth heat anomalies. During the Bølling‐Allerød, the demise of ice sheets resulted in oceanographic changes in the North Atlantic that reduced convective heat loss to the atmosphere, causing subsurface warming that overwhelmed the cooling expected from an AMOC reinvigoration. The data and simulations suggest that rising atmospheric CO2 did not contribute significantly to deglacial subsurface warming at our sites.
  • Article
    Deepwater expansion and enhanced remineralization in the eastern equatorial Pacific during the last glacial maximum
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-06-04) Umling, Natalie E. ; Thunell, Robert C. ; Bizimis, Michael
    Published estimates of the radiocarbon content of middepth waters suggest a decrease in ventilation in multiple locations during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 24.0–18.1 ka). Reduced glacial ventilation would have allowed respired carbon to accumulate in those waters. A subsequent deglacial release of this respired carbon reservoir to the atmosphere could then account for the observed increases in atmospheric CO2 and decline in atmospheric radiocarbon content. However, age model error and a release of 14C‐depleted mantle carbon have also been cited as possible explanations for the observed middepth radiocarbon depletions, calling into question the deep ocean's role in storing respired carbon during the LGM. Joint measurements of benthic foraminiferal carbon isotope values (δ13C) and cadmium/calcium (Cd/Ca) ratios provide a method for isolating the air‐sea component of a water mass from changes in remineralization. Here we use benthic foraminiferal δ13C and Cd/Ca records from the eastern equatorial Pacific to constrain changes in remineralization and water‐mass mixing over the last glacial‐interglacial transition. These records are complemented with elemental measurements of the authigenic coatings of foraminifera to monitor postdepositional changes in bottom water properties. Our results suggest an increase of deep waters at midwater depths consistent with a shoaling of the boundary between the upper and lower branches of Southern Ocean overturning circulation. Additionally, our records demonstrate increased organic matter remineralization in middepth waters during the LGM, suggesting that respired carbon did accumulate in middepth waters under periods of reduced ventilation.
  • Article
    Deglacial temperature and carbonate saturation state variability in the tropical Atlantic at Antarctic Intermediate Water Depths
    (Wiley, 2023-08-26) Oppo, Delia W. ; Lu, Wanyi ; Huang, Kuo-Fang ; Umling, Natalie E. ; Guo, Weifu ; Yu, Jimin ; Curry, William B. ; Marchitto, Thomas M. ; Wang, Shouyi
    The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is characterized by northward flow in the upper ocean and southward flow in the deep ocean. Understanding how the AMOC has changed in the past, and how such changes have affected surface climate and the distribution of ocean heat, carbon, and nutrients is important but challenging, as reconstructions of subsurface ocean properties are sometimes ambiguous. Here, we use the chemical composition of seafloor shells from a site in the western tropical Atlantic Ocean at ∼950 m water depth, within the northward-flowing limb of the AMOC, to reconstruct temperature, nutrients, and carbon content during the end of the last Ice Age, an interval when AMOC strength is believed to have varied. Our results support a link between AMOC strength and tropical Atlantic nutrient content, and further suggest that both rising atmospheric CO2 and AMOC variations influenced temperatures and carbon in the subsurface tropical Atlantic Ocean.