East Asian monsoon forcing of suborbital variability in the Sulu Sea during Marine Isotope Stage 3: Link

• Main Authors: To Northern Hemisphere Climate, Stefanie Dannenmann, Braddock K. Linsley (corresponding, Yair Rosenthal, Luc Beaufort
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pacific; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.659.2106; http://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/blinsley/home_page/Dannenmann_et_al_2003.pdf

[1] We have generated a new high-resolution record of variations in planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes (d18O) and Mg/Ca from a sediment core (IMAGES 97-2141) in the Sulu Sea located in the Philippine archipelago of western tropical Pacific. This record reveals distinct, suborbital-scale d18O changes, most notably during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) (30,000 to 60,000 years B.P.). The amplitudes of these d18O fluctuations (0.4 to 0.7%) exceed that which can be attributed to sea level changes and must be due to changes in sea surface conditions. In the same interval, variations in planktonic foraminifera Mg/Ca suggest that suborbital surface ocean temperature variations of 1 to 1.5C in the Sulu Sea were not in phase with d18O. Combined, this evidence indicates that the MIS3 millennial d18O events in the Sulu Sea were primarily the result of changes in surface water salinity, which today is directly related to the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) and its influence on the balance between surface water contributions from the South China Sea and Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP). Within dating uncertainties the MIS3 Sulu Sea d18O suborbital variability indicates that times of fresher surface conditions in the Sulu Sea coincide with similar conditions in the WPWP [Stott et al., 2002] and also with intensifications of the