Deglacial temperature and carbonate saturation state variability in the tropical Atlantic at Antarctic Intermediate Water Depths

Abstract

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.