Glacier retreat in New Zealand during the Younger Dryas stadial

Identifying the provenance and quantifying the contribution of dust sources in EPICA Dronning Maud Land ice core (Antarctica) over the last deglaciation (7-27 kyr BP): A high-resolution, quantitative record from a new Rare Earth Element mixing model

Antarctic ice cores have revealed the interplay between dust and climate in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet, so far, no continuous record of dust provenance has been established through the last deglaciation. Here, using a new database of 207 Rare Earth Element (REE) patterns measured in dust and sediments/soils from well-known potential source areas (PSA) of the Southern Hemisphere, we developed a statistical model combining those inputs to provide the best fit to the REE patterns measured in EPICA Dronning Maud Land (EDML) ice core (E. Antarctica). Out of 398 samples measured in the EDML core, 386 samples have been un-mixed with statistical significance. Combined with the total atmospheric deposition, we quantified the dust flux from each PSA to EDML between 7 and 27 kyr BP. Our results reveal that the dust composition was relatively uniform up until 14.5 kyr BP despite a large drop in atmospheric deposition at ∼18 kyr with a large contribution from Patagonia yielding ∼68 % of total dust deposition. The remaining dust was supplied from Australia (14-15 %), Southern Africa (∼9 %), New Zealand (∼3-4 %) and Puna-Altiplano (∼2-3 %). The most striking change occurred ∼14.5 kyr BP when Patagonia dropped below 50 % on average while low-latitude PSA increased their contributions to 21-23 % for Southern Africa, 13-21 % for Australia and ∼ 4-10 % for Puna-Altiplano. We argue that this shift is linked to long-lasting changes in the hydrology of Patagonian rivers and to sudden acceleration of the submersion of Patagonian shelf at 14.5 kyr BP, highlighting a relationship between dust composition and eustatic sea level. Early Holocene dust composition is highly variable, with Patagonian contribution being still prevalent, at ∼50 % on average. Provided a good coverage of local and distal PSA, our statistical model based on REE pattern offers a straightforward and cost-effective method to trace dust source in ice cores.

Glacier fluctuations in the northern Patagonian Andes (44°S) imply wind-modulated interhemispheric in-phase climate shifts during Termination 1

The Last Glacial Termination (T1) featured major changes in global circulation systems that led to a shift from glacial to interglacial climate. While polar ice cores attest to an antiphased thermal pattern at millennial timescales, recent well-dated moraine records from both hemispheres suggest in-phase fluctuations in glaciers through T1, which is inconsistent with the bipolar see-saw paradigm. Here, we present a glacier chronology based on 30 new ¹⁰Be surface exposure ages from well-preserved moraines in the Lago Palena/General Vintter basin in northern Patagonia (~ 44°S). We find that the main glacier lobe underwent profound retreat after 19.7 ± 0.7 ka. This recessional trend led to the individualization of the Cerro Riñón glacier by ~ 16.3 ka, which underwent minor readvances at 15.9 ± 0.5 ka during Heinrich Stadial 1, during the Antarctic Cold Reversal with successive maxima at 13.5 ± 0.4, 13.1 ± 0.4, and 13.1 ± 0.5 ka, and a minor culmination at 12.5 ± 0.4 ka during Younger Dryas time. We conclude that fluctuations of Patagonian glaciers during T1 were controlled primarily by climate anomalies brought by shifts in the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) locus. We posit that the global covariation of mountain glaciers during T1 was linked to variations in atmospheric CO₂ (atmCO₂) promoted by the interplay of the SWW-Southern Ocean system at millennial timescales.

Moraines in the Austrian Alps record repeated phases of glacier stabilization through the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene

Climate is currently warming due to anthropogenic impact on the Earth’s atmosphere. To better understand the processes and feedbacks within the climate system that underlie this accelerating warming trend, it is useful to examine past periods of abrupt climate change that were driven by natural forcings. Glaciers provide an excellent natural laboratory for reconstructing the climate of the past as they respond sensitively to climate oscillations. Therefore, we study glacier systems and their behavior during the transition from colder to warmer climate phases, focusing on the period between 15 and 10 ka. Using a combination of geomorphological mapping and beryllium-10 surface exposure dating, we reconstruct ice extents in two glaciated valleys of the Silvretta Massif in the Austrian Alps. The mountain glacier record shows that general deglaciation after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was repeatedly interrupted by glacier stabilization or readvance, perhaps during the Oldest Dryas to Bølling transition (landform age: 14.4 ± 1.0 ka) and certainly during the Younger Dryas (YD; 12.9–11.7 ka) and the Early Holocene (EH; 12–10 ka). The oldest landform age indicates a lateral ice margin that postdates the ‘Gschnitz’ stadial (ca. 17–16 ka) and predates the YD. It shows that local inner-alpine glaciers were more extensive until the onset of the Bølling warm phase (ca. 14.6 ka), or possibly even into the Bølling than during the subsequent YD. The second age group, ca. 80 m below the (pre-)Bølling ice margin, indicates glacier extents during the YD cold phase and captures the spatial and temporal fine structure of glacier retreat during this period. The ice surface lowered approximately 50–60 m through the YD, which is indicative of milder climate conditions at the end of the YD compared to its beginning. Finally, the third age group falls into a period of more substantial warming, the YD–EH transition, and shows discontinuous glacier retreat during the glacial to interglacial transition. The new geochronologies synthesized with pre-existing moraine records from the Silvretta Massif evidence multiple cold phases that punctuated the general post-LGM warming trend and illustrate the sensitive response of Silvretta glaciers to abrupt climate oscillations in the past.

Is There a Relationship between Fish Cannibalism and Latitude or Species Richness?

Cannibalism has been commonly observed in fish from northern and alpine regions and less frequently reported for subtropical and tropical fish in more diverse communities. Assuming all else being equal, cannibalism should be more common in communities with lower species richness because the probability of encountering conspecific versus heterospecific prey would be higher. A global dataset was compiled to determine if cannibalism occurrence is associated with species richness and latitude. Cannibalism occurrence, local species richness and latitude were recorded for 4,100 populations of 2,314 teleost fish species. Relationships between cannibalism, species richness and latitude were evaluated using generalized linear mixed models. Species richness was an important predictor of cannibalism, with occurrences more frequently reported for assemblages containing fewer species. Cannibalism was positively related with latitude for both marine and freshwater ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere, but not in the Southern Hemisphere. The regression slope for the relationship was steeper for freshwater than marine fishes. In general, cannibalism is more frequent in communities with lower species richness, and the relationship between cannibalism and latitude is stronger in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, weaker latitudinal gradients of fish species richness may account for the weak relationship between cannibalism and latitude. Cannibalism may be more common in freshwater than marine systems because freshwater habitats tend to be smaller and more closed to dispersal. Cannibalism should have greatest potential to influence fish population dynamics in freshwater systems at high northern latitudes.

Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation

The ongoing retreat of glaciers globally is one of the clearest manifestations of recent global warming associated with rising greenhouse gas concentrations. By comparison, the importance of greenhouse gases in driving glacier retreat during the most recent deglaciation, the last major interval of global warming, is unclear due to uncertainties in the timing of retreat around the world. Here we use recently improved cosmogenic-nuclide production-rate calibrations to recalculate the ages of 1,116 glacial boulders from 195 moraines that provide broad coverage of retreat in mid-to-low-latitude regions. This revised history, in conjunction with transient climate model simulations, suggests that while several regional-scale forcings, including insolation, ice sheets and ocean circulation, modulated glacier responses regionally, they are unable to account for global-scale retreat, which is most likely related to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.

The extent to which greenhouse gases forced glacier retreat during the last deglaciation remains unclear. Here, the authors recalculate cosmogenic nuclide ages for 195 glacier moraines and show that deglacial glacier retreat was broadly globally synchronous with rising levels of atmospheric CO₂.

Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation

The ongoing retreat of glaciers globally is one of the clearest manifestations of recent global warming associated with rising greenhouse gas concentrations. By comparison, the importance of greenhouse gases in driving glacier retreat during the most recent deglaciation, the last major interval of global warming, is unclear due to uncertainties in the timing of retreat around the world. Here we use recently improved cosmogenic-nuclide production-rate calibrations to recalculate the ages of 1,116 glacial boulders from 195 moraines that provide broad coverage of retreat in mid-to-low-latitude regions. This revised history, in conjunction with transient climate model simulations, suggests that while several regional-scale forcings, including insolation, ice sheets and ocean circulation, modulated glacier responses regionally, they are unable to account for global-scale retreat, which is most likely related to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.

The early rise and late demise of New Zealand's last glacial maximum

Recent debate on records of southern midlatitude glaciation has focused on reconstructing glacier dynamics during the last glacial termination, with different results supporting both in-phase and out-of-phase correlations with Northern Hemisphere glacial signals. A continuing major weakness in this debate is the lack of robust data, particularly from the early and maximum phase of southern midlatitude glaciation (∼30-20 ka), to verify the competing models. Here we present a suite of 58 cosmogenic exposure ages from 17 last-glacial ice limits in the Rangitata Valley of New Zealand, capturing an extensive record of glacial oscillations between 28-16 ka. The sequence shows that the local last glacial maximum in this region occurred shortly before 28 ka, followed by several successively less extensive ice readvances between 26-19 ka. The onset of Termination 1 and the ensuing glacial retreat is preserved in exceptional detail through numerous recessional moraines, indicating that ice retreat between 19-16 ka was very gradual. Extensive valley glaciers survived in the Rangitata catchment until at least 15.8 ka. These findings preclude the previously inferred rapid climate-driven ice retreat in the Southern Alps after the onset of Termination 1. Our record documents an early last glacial maximum, an overall trend of diminishing ice volume in New Zealand between 28-20 ka, and gradual deglaciation until at least 15 ka.

Biological response to millennial variability of dust and nutrient supply in the Subantarctic South Atlantic Ocean

Fluxes of lithogenic material and fluxes of three palaeo-productivity proxies (organic carbon, biogenic opal and alkenones) over the past 100,000 years were determined using the (230)Th-normalization method in three sediment cores from the Subantarctic South Atlantic Ocean. Features in the lithogenic flux record of each core correspond to similar features in the record of dust deposition in the EPICA Dome C ice core. Biogenic fluxes correlate with lithogenic fluxes in each sediment core. Our preferred interpretation is that South American dust, most probably from Patagonia, constitutes a major source of lithogenic material in Subantarctic South Atlantic sediments, and that past biological productivity in this region responded to variability in the supply of dust, probably due to biologically available iron carried by the dust. Greater nutrient supply as well as greater nutrient utilization (stimulated by dust) contributed to Subantarctic productivity during cold periods, in contrast to the region south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF), where reduced nutrient supply during cold periods was the principal factor limiting productivity. The anti-phased patterns of productivity on opposite sides of the APF point to shifts in the physical supply of nutrients and to dust as cofactors regulating productivity in the Southern Ocean.

Intensification of the meridional temperature gradient in the Great Barrier Reef following the Last Glacial Maximum

Tropical south-western Pacific temperatures are of vital importance to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), but the role of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the growth of the GBR since the Last Glacial Maximum remains largely unknown. Here we present records of Sr/Ca and δ¹⁸O for Last Glacial Maximum and deglacial corals that show a considerably steeper meridional SST gradient than the present day in the central GBR. We find a 1–2 °C larger temperature decrease between 17° and 20°S about 20,000 to 13,000 years ago. The result is best explained by the northward expansion of cooler subtropical waters due to a weakening of the South Pacific gyre and East Australian Current. Our findings indicate that the GBR experienced substantial meridional temperature change during the last deglaciation, and serve to explain anomalous deglacial drying of northeastern Australia. Overall, the GBR developed through significant SST change and may be more resilient than previously thought.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under threat from rising ocean temperatures, yet its response to past temperature change is poorly known. Felis et al. show that the GBR experienced a much steeper temperature gradient during the last deglaciation, suggesting it may be more resilient than previously thought.

Antarctic lakes suggest millennial reorganizations of Southern Hemisphere atmospheric and oceanic circulation

The phasing of millennial-scale oscillations in Antarctica relative to those elsewhere in the world is important for discriminating among models for abrupt climate change, particularly those involving the Southern Ocean. However, records of millennial-scale variability from Antarctica dating to the last glacial maximum are rare and rely heavily on data from widely spaced ice cores, some of which show little variability through that time. Here, we present new data from closed-basin lakes in the Dry Valleys region of East Antarctica that show high-magnitude, high-frequency oscillations in surface level during the late Pleistocene synchronous with climate fluctuations elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. These data suggest a coherent Southern Hemisphere pattern of climate change on millennial time scales, at least in the Pacific sector, and indicate that any hypothesis concerning the origin of these events must account for synchronous changes in both high and temperate latitudes.