Indian Ocean salinity build-up primes deglacial ocean circulation recovery

Sophie Nuber; James W. B. Rae; Xu Zhang; Morten B. Andersen; Matthew D. Dumont; Huw T. Mithan; Yuchen Sun; Bas de Boer; Ian R. Hall; Stephen Barker

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3

Indian Ocean salinity build-up primes deglacial ocean circulation recovery

Sophie Nuber^*, James W. B. Rae, Xu Zhang, Morten B. Andersen, Matthew D. Dumont, Huw T. Mithan, Yuchen Sun, Bas de Boer, Ian R. Hall, Stephen Barker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The Indian Ocean provides a source of salt for North Atlantic deep-water convection sites, via the Agulhas Leakage, and may thus drive changes in the ocean’s overturning circulation^1–3. However, little is known about the salt content variability of Indian Ocean and Agulhas Leakage waters during past glacial cycles and how this may influence circulation. Here we show that the glacial Indian Ocean surface salt budget was notably different from the modern, responding dynamically to changes in sea level. Indian Ocean surface salinity increased during glacial intensification, peaking in glacial maxima. We find that this is due to rapid land exposure in the Indonesian archipelago induced by glacial sea-level lowering, and we suggest a mechanistic link via reduced input of relatively fresh Indonesian Throughflow waters into the Indian Ocean. Using climate model results, we show that the release of this glacial Indian Ocean salinity via the Agulhas Leakage during deglaciation can directly impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and global climate.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	306-311
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature
Volume	617
Issue number	7960
Early online date	10 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3
Publication status	Published - 11 May 2023

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10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3

Nuber_2023_Nature_Indian-Ocean_AAM
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2023. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3
Accepted author manuscript, 2.51 MB

OldCO2NewArchives: CO2 reconstruction: OldCO2NewArchives: CO2 Reconstruction over the last 100 Myr from novel geological archives
Rae, J. W. B. (PI)
European Research Council
1/02/19 → 31/01/24
Project: Fellowship

Dataset for Indian Ocean Salinity build-up primes Deglacial Ocean Circulation Recovery
Nuber, S. (Creator), Rae, J. W. B. (Creator), Zhang, X. (Creator), Andersen, M. B. (Creator), Dumont, M. D. (Creator), Mithan, H. T. (Creator), Sun, Y. (Creator), de Boer, B. (Creator), Hall, I. R. (Creator) & Barker, S. (Creator), PANGEA, 2023
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.955609
Dataset

Cite this

@article{78fe058f6a4d4ef7b574320954fb2a4f,

title = "Indian Ocean salinity build-up primes deglacial ocean circulation recovery",

abstract = "The Indian Ocean provides a source of salt for North Atlantic deep-water convection sites, via the Agulhas Leakage, and may thus drive changes in the ocean{\textquoteright}s overturning circulation1–3. However, little is known about the salt content variability of Indian Ocean and Agulhas Leakage waters during past glacial cycles and how this may influence circulation. Here we show that the glacial Indian Ocean surface salt budget was notably different from the modern, responding dynamically to changes in sea level. Indian Ocean surface salinity increased during glacial intensification, peaking in glacial maxima. We find that this is due to rapid land exposure in the Indonesian archipelago induced by glacial sea-level lowering, and we suggest a mechanistic link via reduced input of relatively fresh Indonesian Throughflow waters into the Indian Ocean. Using climate model results, we show that the release of this glacial Indian Ocean salinity via the Agulhas Leakage during deglaciation can directly impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and global climate.",

author = "Sophie Nuber and Rae, {James W. B.} and Xu Zhang and Andersen, {Morten B.} and Dumont, {Matthew D.} and Mithan, {Huw T.} and Yuchen Sun and {de Boer}, Bas and Hall, {Ian R.} and Stephen Barker",

note = "Funding: This work was mainly funded through UK NERC grant NE/P000878/1 provided to S.N. by S.B. J.W.B.R. received funding for this work from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 805246) which also funded M.D.D. S.N. received further funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 111-2636-M-002-020) granted to H. Ren. X.Z. and Y.S. were funded through the Natural Science Foundation of China (41988101 and 42075047) and German Helmholtz Postdoc Program (PD-301). X.Z. also acknowledges support from the National Key Scientific and Technological Infrastructure project “Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility” (EarthLab). H.T.M. was funded through the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (110-2811-M-002-647 and 111-2811-M-002-116).",

year = "2023",

month = may,

day = "11",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3",

language = "English",

volume = "617",

pages = "306--311",

journal = "Nature",

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T1 - Indian Ocean salinity build-up primes deglacial ocean circulation recovery

AU - Nuber, Sophie

AU - Rae, James W. B.

AU - Zhang, Xu

AU - Andersen, Morten B.

AU - Dumont, Matthew D.

AU - Mithan, Huw T.

AU - Sun, Yuchen

AU - de Boer, Bas

AU - Hall, Ian R.

AU - Barker, Stephen

N1 - Funding: This work was mainly funded through UK NERC grant NE/P000878/1 provided to S.N. by S.B. J.W.B.R. received funding for this work from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 805246) which also funded M.D.D. S.N. received further funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 111-2636-M-002-020) granted to H. Ren. X.Z. and Y.S. were funded through the Natural Science Foundation of China (41988101 and 42075047) and German Helmholtz Postdoc Program (PD-301). X.Z. also acknowledges support from the National Key Scientific and Technological Infrastructure project “Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility” (EarthLab). H.T.M. was funded through the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (110-2811-M-002-647 and 111-2811-M-002-116).

PY - 2023/5/11

Y1 - 2023/5/11

N2 - The Indian Ocean provides a source of salt for North Atlantic deep-water convection sites, via the Agulhas Leakage, and may thus drive changes in the ocean’s overturning circulation1–3. However, little is known about the salt content variability of Indian Ocean and Agulhas Leakage waters during past glacial cycles and how this may influence circulation. Here we show that the glacial Indian Ocean surface salt budget was notably different from the modern, responding dynamically to changes in sea level. Indian Ocean surface salinity increased during glacial intensification, peaking in glacial maxima. We find that this is due to rapid land exposure in the Indonesian archipelago induced by glacial sea-level lowering, and we suggest a mechanistic link via reduced input of relatively fresh Indonesian Throughflow waters into the Indian Ocean. Using climate model results, we show that the release of this glacial Indian Ocean salinity via the Agulhas Leakage during deglaciation can directly impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and global climate.

AB - The Indian Ocean provides a source of salt for North Atlantic deep-water convection sites, via the Agulhas Leakage, and may thus drive changes in the ocean’s overturning circulation1–3. However, little is known about the salt content variability of Indian Ocean and Agulhas Leakage waters during past glacial cycles and how this may influence circulation. Here we show that the glacial Indian Ocean surface salt budget was notably different from the modern, responding dynamically to changes in sea level. Indian Ocean surface salinity increased during glacial intensification, peaking in glacial maxima. We find that this is due to rapid land exposure in the Indonesian archipelago induced by glacial sea-level lowering, and we suggest a mechanistic link via reduced input of relatively fresh Indonesian Throughflow waters into the Indian Ocean. Using climate model results, we show that the release of this glacial Indian Ocean salinity via the Agulhas Leakage during deglaciation can directly impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and global climate.

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3

DO - 10.1038/s41586-023-05866-3

M3 - Article

SN - 1476-4687

VL - 617

SP - 306

EP - 311

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 7960

ER -

Indian Ocean salinity build-up primes deglacial ocean circulation recovery

Abstract

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OldCO2NewArchives: CO2 reconstruction: OldCO2NewArchives: CO2 Reconstruction over the last 100 Myr from novel geological archives

Datasets

Dataset for Indian Ocean Salinity build-up primes Deglacial Ocean Circulation Recovery

Cite this