Southern Ocean biogeochemical impact on the tropical ocean: Stable isotope records from the Pacific for the past 25,000 years

Modeling of oceanic nutrient fields indicates that the Southern Ocean may have a strong impact on the chemistry of the thermocline waters which upwell in the eastern tropical oceans and feed biological productivity there. The subantarctic is a primary source of equatorial undercurrent (EUC) waters. The Southern Ocean to equator connection has been shown through modeling to have a potential influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide content via an increase in the efficiency of the tropical biotic pump (silica leakage hypothesis). On the glacial–interglacial timescale the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) has a thermocline (EUC) carbon isotope record which is consistent with that idea and a stronger ice age biologic drawdown in the subantarctic. This carbon isotope record features glacial values more positive than those of the Holocene, which is the reverse of what is seen in the non-equatorial, stratified, ocean. We report planktonic carbon isotope records from the Pacific subantarctic in an effort to trace the unique EEP carbon isotope signature to its source. Our results are compatible with the subantarctic as a source of the tropical carbon isotope signature. Analysis of the glacial to Holocene isotopic pattern in terms of causative process indicates that an increased glacial subantarctic biotic pump accounts best for our observations. This supports the hypothesis of Southern Ocean drive on tropical biological production, and potential impact on the global carbon cycle.