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In paleoceanography, carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios from benthic foraminifera are used as tracers of physical and biogeochemical properties of the deep ocean. We present the first version of the Ocean Carbon Cycling working group database,  of stable isotope ratios of oxygen and carbon from benthic foraminifera from deep ocean sediment cores from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 23-20 ky before present (BP)) to the Holocene (<10 ky BP) with a particular focus on the early last deglaciation (20-15 ky BP). It includes 287 globally distributed coring sites, with metadata, isotopic and chronostratigraphic information, and age models. A quality check was performed for all data and age models. Sites with at least millennial resolution were preferred, because the main goal is to resolve ocean changes associated with the last deglaciation on at least millennial timescales. Software tools were produced to access and analyze the data, and are included with this publication. Deep water mass structure as well as differences between the early deglaciation and LGM are captured by the data in the compilation, even though its coverage is still sparse in many ocean regions. We find high correlations among time series calculated with different age models at sites that allow such analysis. The database provides a useful dynamical approach to map physical and biogeochemical changes of the ocean throughout the last deglaciation.

Custom python scripts to read and analyze the data base may be found in https://github.com/juanmuglia/OC3-python-scripts and in OC3-python-scripts.zip in this repository. plots_d13c.pdf and plots_d18o.pdf contain time series for all sites and available age models. 

We present the first version of the Ocean Circulation and Carbon Cycling (OC3) working group database, of oxygen and carbon stable isotope ratios from benthic foraminifera in deep ocean sediment cores from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 23-19 ky) to the Holocene (<10 ky) with a particular focus on the early last deglaciation (19-15 ky BP). It includes 287 globally distributed coring sites, with metadata, isotopic and chronostratigraphic information, and age models. A quality check was performed for all data and age models, and sites with at least millennial resolution were preferred. Deep water mass structure as well as differences between the early deglaciation and LGM are captured by the data, even though its coverage is still sparse in many regions. We find high correlations among time series calculated with different age models at sites that allow such analysis. The database provides a useful dynamical approach to map physical and biogeochemical changes of the ocean throughout the last deglaciation.

 

Reconstructing the circulation, mixing and carbon content of the Last Glacial Maximum ocean remains challenging. Recent hypotheses suggest that a shoaled Atlantic meridional overturning circulation or increased stratification would have reduced vertical mixing, isolated the abyssal ocean and increased carbon storage, thus contributing to lower atmospheric CO₂concentrations. Here, using an ensemble of ocean simulations, we evaluate impacts of changes in tidal energy dissipation due to lower sea levels on ocean mixing, circulation, and carbon isotope distributions. We find that increased tidal mixing strengthens deep ocean flow rates and decreases vertical gradients of radiocarbon andδ¹³C in the deep Atlantic. Simulations with a shallower overturning circulation and more vigorous mixing fit sediment isotope data best. Our results, which are conservative, provide observational support that vertical mixing in the glacial Atlantic may have been enhanced due to more vigorous tidal dissipation, despite shoaling of the overturning circulation and increases in stratification.

 

Abstract. We present a global atlas of downcore foraminiferal oxygen and carbon isotope ratios available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.936747(Mulitza et al., 2021a). The database contains 2106 published and previously unpublished stable isotope downcore records with 361 949 stable isotopevalues of various planktic and benthic species of Foraminifera from 1265 sediment cores. Age constraints are provided by 6153 uncalibratedradiocarbon ages from 598 (47 %) of the cores. Each stable isotope and radiocarbon series is provided in a separate netCDF file containingfundamental metadata as attributes. The data set can be managed and explored with the free software tool PaleoDataView. The atlas will provideimportant data for paleoceanographic analyses and compilations, site surveys, or for teaching marine stratigraphy. The database can be updated withnew records as they are generated, providing a live ongoing resource into the future. 

New radiocarbon and sedimentological results from the Gulf of Alaska document recurrent millennial-scale episodes of reorganized Pacific Ocean ventilation synchronous with rapid Cordilleran Ice Sheet discharge, indicating close coupling of ice-ocean dynamics spanning the past 42,000 years. Ventilation of the intermediate-depth North Pacific tracks strength of the Asian monsoon, supporting a role for moisture and heat transport from low latitudes in North Pacific paleoclimate. Changes in carbon-14 age of intermediate waters are in phase with peaks in Cordilleran ice-rafted debris delivery, and both consistently precede ice discharge events from the Laurentide Ice Sheet, known as Heinrich events. This timing precludes an Atlantic trigger for Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat and instead implicates the Pacific as an early part of a cascade of dynamic climate events with global impact. 

Abstract. The University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM) ofintermediate complexity has been a useful tool in recent assessments oflong-term climate changes, including both paleo-climate modelling anduncertainty assessments of future warming. Since the last official releaseof the UVic ESCM 2.9 and the two official updates during the last decade,considerable model development has taken place among multiple researchgroups. The new version 2.10 of the University of Victoria Earth SystemClimate Model presented here will be part of the sixth phaseof the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). More precisely it willbe used in the intercomparison of Earth system models of intermediatecomplexity (EMIC), such as the C4MIP, the Carbon Dioxide Removal and ZeroEmissions Commitment model intercomparison projects (CDR-MIP and ZECMIP,respectively). It now brings together and combines multiple modeldevelopments and new components that have come about since the lastofficial release of the model. The main additions to the base model are(i) an improved biogeochemistry module for the ocean, (ii) a vertically resolvedsoil model including dynamic hydrology and soil carbon processes, and (iii) arepresentation of permafrost carbon. To set the foundation of its use, wehere describe the UVic ESCM 2.10 and evaluate results from transienthistorical simulations against observational data. We find that the UVicESCM 2.10 is capable of reproducing changes in historical temperature andcarbon fluxes well. The spatial distribution of many ocean tracers,including temperature, salinity, phosphate and nitrate, also agree well withobserved tracer profiles. The good performance in the ocean tracers isconnected to an improved representation of ocean physical properties. Forthe moment, the main biases that remain are a vegetation carbon density thatis too high in the tropics, a higher than observed change in the ocean heatcontent (OHC) and an oxygen utilization in the Southern Ocean that is too low.All of these biases will be addressed in the next updates to the model.