Origin of millennial-scale climate signals in the subtropical North Atlantic

Abstract

We present a high-resolution planktonic foraminiferal stable isotope record (Globigerinoides ruber) spanning marine oxygen isotope stages (MISs) 6 through 8 in the northwestern subtropical Atlantic Ocean (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 172 Site 1059). The record fills a gap to produce an about 1.3 Myr long continuous time series of high-frequency (> ∼1/12 kyr) surface ocean hydrography, the first of this kind. We test the hypothesis that the suborbital climate signals (i.e., half and quarter precession cycles) are linked to precession forcing in tropical latitudes. Semiprecession cycles present between 0 and 320 ka are of the right periodicity to relate to the dominant precession forcing (23 kyr). These cycles are evident as double peaks within the given precession framework, and there is good match in the amplitude modulation of the filter output and the δ18O time series. Quarter precession cycles dominate the suborbital spectra between 320 ka and 1.3 Ma. Periodicities are close to those expected from the harmonics of the dominant precession peaks in the δ18O record, but present in the time series only intermittently, and their amplitude modulation does not match that of the primary precession period. Thus, only the half precession cycles evidence a response to low-latitude insolation such as that introduced by insolation maxima at the equinoxes or solstices during the course of a precession cycle. Additionally, we find well-defined, rapid (∼1.5-2 kyr) variations across the first of the interglacial maxima of MIS 7 adding to evidence of non-ice sheet-related forcing factors in driving climate instabilities. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.