To facilitate the selection of drill sites for Leg 138, a site survey
program was conducted on board the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography's research vessel Thomas Washington (Cruise Venture
1). During this cruise, which departed San Diego on 30 August 1989
and arrived in Manzanillo, Mexico, on 4 October 1989,...
During ODP Leg 138, we tested a prototype instrument, developed
at Oregon State University, for measuring light reflectance in 511
channels of the visible and near-infrared bands. The technique of
reflectance spectroscopy has been used for some time in chemistry
and mineralogy (e.g., Hunt, 1977; Gaffey, 1986) and has found...
Carbon isotopically based estimates of CO₂ levels have been generated from a record of the photosynthetic fractionation of ¹³C (≡εp) in a central equatorial Pacific sediment core that spans the last ~255 ka. Contents of ¹³C in phytoplanktonic biomass were determined by analysis of C37 alkadienones. These compounds are exclusive...
We analyzed the unsaturation ratio (U k/37 ) of long-chain ketones—a molecular sea-surface temperature (SST) indicator—concentrations of carbonate and organic carbon in sediments from Site 846 in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Based on an isotopic age model for the composite depth section of 0-46 m below seafloor and on...
Benthic foraminifer and δ¹³C data from Site 849, on the west flank of the East Pacific Rise (0°11'N, 110°3l'W; 3851 m), give relatively continuous records of deep Pacific Ocean stable isotope variations between 0 and 5 Ma. The mean sample spacing is 4 k.y. Most analyses are from Cibicides wuellerstorfi>...
During Leg 138, we measured reflectance spectra in the visible and near-infrared bands (455-945 nm) every few centimeters on split core surfaces from eastern tropical Pacific Ocean sediments. Here, we evaluate predictions of the content of biogenic calcite, biogenic opal, and nonbiogenic sediments from the reflectance spectra. For Sites 844...
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 138 was designed to study the late Neogene paleoceanography of the equatorial Pacific Ocean at time scales of thousands to millions of years. Crucial to this objective was the acquisition of continuous, high-resolution sedimentary records. It is well known that between successive advanced piston corer...
High resolution, continuous records of GRAPE wet bulk density (a carbonate proxy) from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 138
provide one the opportunity for a detailed study of eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean carbonate sedimentation during the last 6 m.y.
The transect of sites drilled spans both latitude and longitude in the...
Establishing true depths of recovered sediments is critical to determining sedimentation rates for high-resolution paleoclimatic
studies. We have corrected the composite depth scale, which accounts for the entire continuous sedimentary sequence, so that sediment
depths are consistent with logging depths, or "true" depths. We accomplished this by taking advantage of...
High-resolution records of δ¹⁸0 and relative abundances of planktonic foraminifers were generated for ODP Leg 138 Site 846 for the past 800 k.y., with an average sampling interval of 3.6 k.y. The time scale was constructed by correlating the benthic δ¹⁸0 record to the SPECMAP and ODP Site 677 δ¹⁸0...
A stable-isotope stratigraphy at Site 846 (tropical Pacific, 3°06'S, 90°49'W, 3307 m water depth), based on the benthic
foraminifers Cibicides wuellerstorfi and Uvigerina peregrina, yields a high-resolution record of deep-sea δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C over the
past 1.8 Ma, with an average sampling interval of 3 k.y. Variance in the δ¹⁸O...
The primary objective of Leg 138 was to provide detailed information about the ocean's response to global climate change
during the Neogene. Two north south transects were drilled (95° and 110°W) within the region of equatorial divergence driven
upwelling (and thus high accumulation rates and resolution) and spanning the major...
Benthic foraminiferal δ¹³C data from site 502 in the Caribbean Sea (sill depth 1800 m) indicate that throughout the past 2.6 m.y., glacial δ¹³C values in the middepth Atlantic were higher during glaciations than interglaciations. This is interpreted as indicating a greater proportion of Upper North Atlantic Deep Water (UNADW)...
Plankton tows from the northern California Current constrain biological and physical
influences on living planktonic foraminifera. In this region, the dominant factors controlling the
size and distribution of symbiotic and asymbiotic species are light and food. Food decreases offshore.
Light, needed for symbiont photosynthesis, increases offshore as water turbidity lessens....
Many ocean regions important to the global carbon budget, including the equatorial Pacific Ocean, have low chlorophyll concentrations despite high levels of conventional nutrients. Iron may instead by the limiting nutrient, and elevated input of terrigenous Fe during windy glacial episodes has been hypothesized to stimulate oceanic productivity through time...
We have used the vanadium concentration in cleaned foraminiferal calcite as a tracer
of seawater V changes in the past. Since the benthic flux of vanadium is sensitive to the redox potential
of sediments, changes in the vanadium concentration of seawater should be a reflection of
changes that control the...
We examine the utility of the uranium (U) content of planktonic foraminifera tests as an indicator of past changes in seawater U content. The U/Ca ratio in foraminifera from Atlantic and Caribbean cores in constant in the Holocene and decreases by ~25% during the last glacial period. Magnesium/calcium (Mg/Ca) ratios...
Calcium carbonate percentages at five Ceara Rise sites were estimated at 1- to 2-k.y. intervals over the past 5 m.y., using
reflectance spectroscopy and magnetic susceptibility proxies. From these estimates and detailed correlations between sites, gradients
of calcite and terrigenous sediment accumulation rates in a depth transect of sites reveal...
Multiple paleoceanographic proxies in a zonal transect across the California Current
near 42°N record modern and last glacial maximum (LGM) thermal and nutrient gradients. The
offshore thermal gradient, derived from foraminiferal species assemblages and oxygen isotope data,
was similar at the LGM to that at present (warmer offshore), but average...
We evaluate the reliability of statistical estimates of sea surface temperature (SST) derived from planktonic foraminiferal faunas using the modern analog method and the Imbrie‐Kipp method. Global core top faunas provide a calibration data set, while modern sediment trap faunas are used for validation. Linear regression of core top predicted...
Statistical transfer functions relate living planktonic foraminiferal species of the central equatorial Pacific to
measured sea surfce temperature, integrated primary productivity, and mixed-layer depth. The faunal estimates
successfully reconstruct latitudinal patterns observed in both warm (El Niño, February-March 1992) and cool (La Niña,
August-September 1992) seasonal settings. Predictions of mixed-layer...
Northeast Pacific benthic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C reveal repeated millennial-scale events of strong deep-sea
ventilation (associated with nutrient depletion and/or high gas exchange) during stadial (cool, high ice volume) episodes
from 10 to 60 ka, opposite the pattern in the deep North Atlantic. Two climate mechanisms may explain this pattern....
Sediment spectral reflectance measurements were generated aboard the JOIDES Resolution during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 162 shipboard operations. The large size of the raw data set (over 1.3 gigabytes) and limited computer hard disk storage space precluded detailed analysis of the data at sea, although broad band averages were used...
We model the response o f the climate system during Heinrich event 2 (H2) by employing an atmospheric general circulation model, using boundary conditions based on the concept of a "canonical" Heinrich event. The canonical event is initialized with a full-height Laurentide ice sheet (LIS) and CLIMAP sea surface temperatures...
Diffuse reflectance records from Feni Drift in the North Atlantic faithfully record sediment percent carbonate. A high-resolution, reflectance-based age model for these sediments derived from an orbitally tuned age model for western equatorial Atlantic, Ceara Rise sediments was generated by spectral frequency mapping. Power spectra of the Feni Drift record...
The sensitivity of the tropics to climate change, particularly the amplitude of glacial‐to‐interglacial changes in sea surface temperature (SST), is one of the great controversies in paleoclimatology. Here we reassess faunal estimates of ice age SSTs, focusing on the problem of no‐analog planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in the equatorial oceans that...
Sediments from five Leg 167 drill sites and three piston cores were analyzed for C[subscript ORG] and CaCO₃. Oxygen isotope stratigraphy on benthic foraminifers was used to assign age models to these sedimentary records. We find that the northern and central California margin is characterized by k.y.-scale events that can...
Pollen analyses of sediments from Holes 1019C, 1019E, 1020C, and 1020D as well as piston Core EW9504-17 provide
continuous, chronostratigraphically controlled proxy vegetation and climate data for coastal northwest North America for the
last ~500 k.y. Systematic changes in the representation of the diagnostic components of northern California plant assemblages...
The stable isotopic signature of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ¹³CDIC) in the northeast Pacific Ocean is lower in near-surface waters by 1.1‰ relative to values predicted from global oceanic trends of δ¹³CDIC versus nutrients. A combination of anthropogenic carbon uptake from the atmosphere and thermodynamic, air-sea gas exchange processes in different...
In order to quantify changes in export production and carbonate dissolution over the past 1 Myr in the
central equatorial Pacific Ocean we analyzed Ba, P, Al, Ti, and Ca in 1106 samples from five piston cores gathered from
5°S to 4°N at 140°W. We focused on Ba/Ti, Al/Ti, and...
We constructed biogenic mass accumulation rate (MAR) time series for eastern Pacific core transects across the equator at ~105˚and ~85˚W and along the equator from 80˚to 140˚W. We used empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to extract spatially coherent patterns of CaCO₃deposition for the last 150 kyr. EOF mode 1 (51%...
More than 7 km of long and relatively continuous sediment sequences
from 11 sites in the southeast and equatorial Pacific were recovered
during Leg 202 for the study of the Earth’s climate and biogeochemical
systems on scales that range from tectonic (millions of
years) to orbital (tens to hundreds of...
Planktonic foraminiferal faunas of the southeast Pacific indicate that sea surface temperatures (SST) have
varied by as much as 8–10°C in the Peru Current, and by ~5–7°C along the equator, over the past 150,000 years.
Changes in SST at times such as the Last Glacial Maximum reflect incursion of high-latitude...
Mg/Ca ratios in planktonic foraminifera reflect calcification temperatures and are thus useful for sea
surface temperature (SST) reconstructions. Despite the obvious utility of this paleoceanographic tracer,
problems of dissolution, gametogenic calcification, and contaminant phases have thus far limited
confidence in Mg/Ca-based reconstructions. Here we show strong evidence of Mg heterogeneity...
The isotopic composition of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) collected at sites of active methane discharge on Hydrate Ridge, Oregon, reveals anaerobic methane oxidation mediated by bacteria, with δ13CDIC reaching values as low as –48‰ in the upper 4 cm of the sediment. In spite of the high sulfide levels...
The mass accumulation rates of sedimentary components (carbonate, organic carbon, opal, barite, reactive phosphate, iron, terrigenous minerals, etc.) are used in many paleoceanographic reconstructions to learn about temporal and spatial changes in surficial Earth processes including wind stress and direction, oceanic circulation, weathering rates, marine productivity and ecosystem structure, climate...
The primary Mg/Ca ratio of foraminiferal shells is a potentially valuable paleoproxy for sea surface
temperature (SST) reconstructions. However, the reliable extraction of this ratio from sedimentary calcite
assumes that we can overcome artifacts related to foraminiferal ecology and partial dissolution, as well as
contamination by secondary calcite and clay....
Multiproxy geologic records of δ18O and Mg/Ca in fossil foraminifera from sediments under the Eastern Pacific Warm Pool (EPWP) region west of Central America document variations in upper ocean temperature, pycnocline strength, and salinity (i.e., net precipitation) over the past 30 kyr. Although evident in the paleotemperature record, there is...
Application of the ²³⁰Th normalization method to estimate sediment burial fluxes in six cores from the
eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) reveals that bulk sediment and organic carbon fluxes display a coherent regional
pattern during the Holocene that is consistent with modern oceanographic conditions, in contrast with estimates
of bulk mass...
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 202 has opened a new window
into understanding late Paleogene and Neogene global environmental
change by providing high-quality sediment sequences from a previously
unsampled region, the eastern South Pacific. Eleven sites (1232–
1242) that record variations on timescales ranging from decades to tens
of millions...
Sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity of the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) reflect global climate effects such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation phenomenon. However, reconstructions of past changes in the WPWP from the geologic record vary depending on the specific proxy record used. Here we develop a multiproxy record...
Here we present the first downcore results for a new paleoproxy, the Mn/Ca ratio of foraminiferal calcite, applied to sediment accumulated in the extreme Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) over the last 30,000 years. The Mn/Ca results are compared to oxygen isotopes and sea surface temperature calculated from Mg/Ca. We...
The Penman‐Monteith equation is often used to estimate transpiration, but an important limitation to this approach, especially for mountainous forested sites, is an accurate estimate of canopy conductance averaged over the area of interest (Gs). We propose a method for estimating watershed‐scale transpiration using estimates of Gs derived from measurements...
We examine the relation between δ¹⁸O in rainwater collected in southwestern Oregon
and climate variables including temperature, parcel trajectory, precipitation amount, and
specific humidity. Local surface air temperature at the time of sample collection explains a
large proportion of δ¹⁸O variability, suggesting that paleoclimatic archives that are related
to rainfall...
We present a new nitrogen isotope model incorporated into the three-dimensional ocean component of a global Earth system climate model designed for millennial timescale simulations. The model includes prognostic tracers for the two stable nitrogen isotopes, 14N and 15N, in the nitrate (NO3−), phytoplankton, zooplankton, and detritus variables of the...
Assessing impacts of future anthropogenic carbon emissions is currently impeded by uncertainties in our knowledge of equilibrium climate sensitivity to atmospheric carbon dioxide doubling. Previous studies suggest 3 K as best estimate, 2–4.5 K as the 66% probability range, and non-zero probabilities for much higher values, the latter implying a...
Biogenic opal, organic carbon, organic matter stable isotope, and trace metal data from
a well-dated, high-resolution jumbo piston core (EW0408–85JC; 59° 33.3′N, 144° 9.21′W,
682 m water depth) recovered from the northern Gulf of Alaska continental slope reveal
changes in productivity and nutrient utilization over the last 17,000 years. Maximum...
Deciphering the evolution of global climate from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum approximately 19 ka to the early Holocene 11 ka presents an outstanding opportunity for understanding the transient response of Earth's climate system to external and internal forcings. During this interval of global warming, the decay of...
Sea surface temperatures (SST) and inorganic continental input over the last 25,000 years (25 ka) are reconstructed in the far eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) based on three cores stretching from the equatorial front (~0.01°N, ME0005-24JC) into the cold tongue region (~3.6°S; TR163-31P and V19-30). We revisit previously published alkenone-derived SST...
We use flux, dissolution, and excess ²³⁰Th data from the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and Manganese Nodule Project equatorial Pacific study Site C to assess the extent of sediment focusing in the equatorial Pacific. Measured mass accumulation rates (MAR) from sediment cores were compared to reconstructed MAR by multiplying...