Revisiting the mid-Pleistocene transition ocean circulation crisis.

The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) [~1.25 to 0.85 million years ago (Ma)] marks a shift in the character of glacial-interglacial climate (, ).

Global oceanic oxygenation controlled by the Southern Ocean through the last deglaciation.

Ocean dissolved oxygen (DO) can provide insights on how the marine carbon cycle affects global climate change. However, the net global DO change and the controlling mechanisms remain uncertain through the last deglaciation. Here, we present a globally integrated DO reconstruction using thallium isotopes, corroborating lower global DO during the Last Glacial Maximum [19 to 23 thousand years before the present (ka B.

Global reorganization of deep-sea circulation and carbon storage after the last ice age.

Using new and published marine fossil radiocarbon (C/C) measurements, a tracer uniquely sensitive to circulation and air-sea gas exchange, we establish several benchmarks for Atlantic, Southern, and Pacific deep-sea circulation and ventilation since the last ice age. We find the most C-depleted water in glacial Pacific bottom depths, rather than the mid-depths as they are today, which is best explained by a slowdown in glacial deep-sea overturning in addition to a "flipped" glacial Pacific overturning configuration. These observations cannot be produced by changes in air-sea gas exchange alone, and they underscore the major role for changes in the overturning circulation for glacial deep-sea carbon storage in the vast Pacific abyss and the concomitant drawdown of atmospheric CO.

A deep Tasman outflow of Pacific waters during the last glacial period.

The interoceanic exchange of water masses is modulated by flow through key oceanic choke points in the Drake Passage, the Indonesian Seas, south of Africa, and south of Tasmania. Here, we use the neodymium isotope signature (ε) of cold-water coral skeletons from intermediate depths (1460‒1689 m) to trace circulation changes south of Tasmania during the last glacial period. The key feature of our dataset is a long-term trend towards radiogenic ε values of ~-4.