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ABSTRACT There is a growing database of radiocarbon ( 14 C) reconstructions from biogenic carbonate taken from marine sediment cores being used to investigate changing ocean circulation and carbon cycling at the end of the last great ice age. Reported here are 14 C results from a marine core taken in the Makassar Straits of the western equatorial Pacific that was intended to test whether there was evidence of geologic carbon release to the ocean during the glacial termination. A thorough investigation of planktic and benthic 14 C ages with stable isotopes and CT-scans revealed extensive burrowing in the upper 2 m of the core that displaced younger sediments downward by more than half a meter into the glacial section of the core. The vertical displacement is evident in both planktic and benthic fossils. However, the extent of displacement and the stratigraphic disturbance became evident only after multiple measurements of different species and genera. A CT-scan prior to sampling would be an effective screening tool to avoid sampling problem cores such as this. 

Abstract. During the early part of the last glacial termination (17.2–15 ka) and coincident with a ∼35 ppm rise in atmospheric CO2, a sharp 0.3‰–0.4‰ decline in atmospheric δ13CO2 occurred, potentially constraining the key processes that account for the early deglacial CO2 rise. A comparable δ13C decline has also been documented in numerous marine proxy records from surface and thermocline-dwelling planktic foraminifera. The δ13C decline recorded in planktic foraminifera has previously been attributed to the release of respired carbon from the deep ocean that was subsequently transported within the upper ocean to sites where the signal was recorded (and then ultimately transferred to the atmosphere). Benthic δ13C records from the global upper ocean, including a new record presented here from the tropical Pacific, also document this distinct early deglacial δ13C decline. Here we present modeling evidence to show that rather than respired carbon from the deep ocean propagating directly to the upper ocean prior to reaching the atmosphere, the carbon would have first upwelled to the surface in the Southern Ocean where it would have entered the atmosphere. In this way the transmission of isotopically light carbon to the global upper ocean was analogous to the ongoing ocean invasion of fossil fuel CO2. The model results suggest that thermocline waters throughout the ocean and 500–2000 m water depths were affected by this atmospheric bridge during the early deglaciation. 

Northern Iraq was the political and economic center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 912 to 609 BCE)—the largest and most powerful empire of its time. After more than two centuries of regional dominance, the Neo-Assyrian state plummeted from its zenith (c. 670 BCE) to complete political collapse (c. 615 to 609 BCE). Earlier explanations for the Assyrian collapse focused on the roles of internal politico-economic conflicts, territorial overextension, and military defeat. Here, we present a high-resolution and precisely dated speleothem record of climate change from the Kuna Ba cave in northern Iraq, which suggests that the empire’s rise occurred during a two-centuries-long interval of anomalously wet climate in the context of the past 4000 years, while megadroughts during the early-mid seventh century BCE, as severe as recent droughts in the region but lasting for decades, triggered a decline in Assyria’s agrarian productivity and thus contributed to its eventual political and economic collapse. 

Abstract The prevailing hypothesis to explain pCO₂rise at the last glacial termination calls upon enhanced ventilation of excess respired carbon that accumulated in the deep sea during the glacial. Recent studies argue lower [O₂] in the glacial ocean is indicative of increased carbon respiration. The magnitude of [O₂] depletion was 100–140 µ mol/kg at the glacial maximum. Because respiration is coupled toδ¹³C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), [O₂] depletion of 100–140 µ mol/kg from carbon respiration would lower deep waterδ¹³C_DICby ∼1‰ relative to surface water. Prolonged sequestration of respired carbon would also lower the amount of¹⁴C in the deep sea. We show that Pacific Deep Waterδ¹³C_DICdid not decrease relative to the surface ocean and Δ¹⁴C was only ∼50‰ lower during the late glacial. Model simulations of the hypothesized ventilation change during deglaciation lead to large increases inδ¹³C_DIC, Δ¹⁴C, andε¹⁴C that are not recorded in observations. 

Abstract In the face of ongoing marine deoxygenation, understanding timescales and drivers of past oxygenation change is of critical importance. Marine sediment cores from tiered silled basins provide a natural laboratory to constrain timing and implications of oxygenation changes across multiple depths. Here, we reconstruct oxygenation and environmental change over time using benthic foraminiferal assemblages from sediment cores from three basins across the Southern California Borderlands: Tanner Basin (EW9504‐09PC, 1,194 m water depth), San Nicolas Basin (EW9504‐08PC, 1,442 m), and San Clemente Basin (EW9504‐05PC,1,818 m). We utilize indicator taxa, community ecology, and an oxygenation transfer function to reconstruct past oxygenation, and we directly compare reconstructed dissolved oxygen to modern measured dissolved oxygen. We generate new, higher resolution carbon and oxygen isotope records from planktic (Globigerina bulloides) and benthic foraminifera (Cibicides mckannai) from Tanner Basin. Geochemical and assemblage data indicate limited ecological and environmental change through time in each basin across the intervals studied. Early to mid‐Holocene (11.0–4.7 ka) oxygenation below 1,400 m (San Clemente and San Nicolas) was relatively stable and reduced relative to modern. San Nicolas Basin experienced a multi‐centennial oxygenation episode from 4.7 to 4.3 ka and oxygenation increased in Tanner Basin gradually from 1.7 to 0.8 ka. Yet across all three depths and time intervals studied, dissolved oxygen is consistently within a range of intermediate hypoxia (0.5–1.5 ml L⁻¹[O₂]). Variance in reconstructed dissolved oxygen was similar to decadal variance in modern dissolved oxygen and reduced relative to Holocene‐scale changes in shallower basins.