790,000 years of millennial-scale Cape Horn Current variability and interhemispheric linkages

Millennial-scale variations in the strength and position of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current exert considerable influence on the global meridional overturning circulation and the ocean carbon cycle. The mechanistic understanding of these variations is still incomplete, partly due to the scarcity of...

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Published in:Nature communications Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 3105 - 13
Main Authors: Rigalleau, Vincent, Lamy, Frank, Ruggieri, Nicoletta, Sadatzki, Henrik, Arz, Helge W., Barker, Stephen, Lembke-Jene, Lester, Wegwerth, Antje, Knorr, Gregor, Venancio, Igor M., Pinho, Tainã M. L., Tiedemann, Ralf, Winckler, Gisela
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2025
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
704/106/2738
704/106/413
Capes (landforms)
Carbon cycle
Carbon dioxide
Cerebral hemispheres
Climate
Climate variability
Cores
Glacial periods
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Outgassing
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sea surface temperature
Southern Hemisphere
Temperature
Thermohaline circulation
Variability
Variation
Cape Horn
ISSN:2041-1723, 2041-1723
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Millennial-scale variations in the strength and position of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current exert considerable influence on the global meridional overturning circulation and the ocean carbon cycle. The mechanistic understanding of these variations is still incomplete, partly due to the scarcity of sediment records covering multiple glacial-interglacial cycles with millennial-scale resolution. Here, we present high-resolution current strength and sea surface temperature records covering the past 790,000 years from the Cape Horn Current as part of the subantarctic Antarctic Circumpolar Current system, flowing along the Chilean margin. Both temperature and current velocity data document persistent millennial-scale climate variability throughout the last eight glacial periods with stronger current flow and warmer sea surface temperatures coinciding with Antarctic warm intervals. These Southern Hemisphere changes are linked to North Atlantic millennial-scale climate fluctuations, plausibly involving changes in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation. The variations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current system are associated with atmospheric CO 2 changes, suggesting a mechanistic link through the Southern Ocean carbon cycle. The strength of the Cape-Horn Current, as traced in the sediment cores, varies with sea surface temperature in the Eastern South Pacific. Changes in this current are also associated with North Hemisphere cooling events and atmospheric CO2 outgassing.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-58458-2