Asymmetric response of the subtropical western South Atlantic thermocline to the Dansgaard-Oeschger events of Marine Isotope Stages 5 and 3

Abstract The last glacial period (116–11.7 ka BP) was an interval characterized by a sequence of abrupt millennial-scale events well documented in Greenland and Antarctica ice-cores. Throughout this period, Greenland cold stadials were accompanied by warm conditions in the thermocline to intermediate waters of the Atlantic Ocean that may have played a role in both the basal melting of ice shelves and the rapid atmospheric warming during the onset of warm interstadials. Climate model simulations indicated an accentuated response of the subtropical western South Atlantic thermocline to the disturbances in the Atlantic circulation. Such works encourage investigations upon thermocline/deep-dwelling planktic foraminifera in this region; however, a study with this aim was not performed. Here we present a paleoceanographic reconstruction from the subtropical western South Atlantic based on the thermocline planktic foraminifera Globorotalia inflata. Our high-resolution δ18O record for the last glacial period presents a millennial-scale variability that strongly resembles the structure of the Greenland Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5. During MIS 3, this millennial-scale variability is absent or considerably dampened. Mg/Ca-derived temperature and seawater δ18O corrected for ice-volume for the MIS 5 interval demonstrate that the region was warmer and saltier (colder and fresher) during early-glacial stadials (interstadials). Our data suggest a reorganization of the northward heat transport throughout the last glacial, in which regions as far south as 24 °S acted as heat reservoirs in periods of weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during MIS 5 but not necessarily (or only marginally) during MIS 3.