Reconstructing past particle fluxes in the tropical Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Using a research strategy analogous to modern sediment trap studies, sediment accumulation patterns on submarine rises can be interpreted in terms of past ocean chemistry and circulation. We have followed this research strategy to reconstruct the history of surface water productivity and deep‐water chemistry and circulation in the eastern equatorial Atlantic (Sierra Leone Rise) and western equatorial Atlantic (Ceara Rise) during the last glacial maximum (∼18,000 B.P.). On shallow sections of these rises, at depths with little carbonate particle degradation, we assume that the accumulation of skeletal carbonate approximates the carbonate production rate in surface water. During the last glacial maximum, the rate of carbonate productivity was lower in the eastern Atlantic than it is today, while the western Atlantic exhibited no glacial‐interglacial difference in carbonate productivity. Based on the difference in carbonate accumulation rates between shallow and deep cores on the rises, we observed greater dissolution in both basins during the last glaciation. The eastern Atlantic always had a lower rate of dissolution than the western Atlantic, despite having deep water with a lower δ13C during the last glacial maximum. Organic carbon accumulation in the eastern Atlantic increased with depth in the water column during the last glaciation, suggesting that there was a bathymetric decrease in dissolved oxygen concentration at that time. These observations are consistent with a glacial decrease in the production rate of northern source deep water during the last glaciation. At that time, the mixing zone between northern source and southern source deep water migrated to the north in the Atlantic, resulting in a greater proportion of corrosive, southern source deep water in the western Atlantic, and entering the eastern Atlantic through low‐latitude fracture zones. Today the ratio of northern and southern components entering the eastern Atlantic is about 4:1. Based on δ13C and carbonate accumulation, our best estimate of this ratio during the last glaciation is 1:1.