Stable isotope ratios of foraminifera from sediment cores off northeastern Brazil, supplement to: Arz, Helge Wolfgang; Pätzold, Jürgen; Wefer, Gerold (1999): The deglacial history of the western tropical Atlantic as inferred from high resolution stable isotope records off northeastern Brazil. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 167(1-2), 105-117

• Main Authors: Arz, Helge Wolfgang, Pätzold, Jürgen, Wefer, Gerold
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 1999
• Subjects: Gravity corer Kiel type; JOPSII-6; JOPSII-8; Victor Hensen; South Atlantic in Late Quaternary Reconstruction of Budget and Currents SFB261; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.711760; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.711760

The western South Atlantic boundary currents represent a sensitive system within the global thermohaline circulation (THC). We investigated the impact of deglacial THC changes on the western tropical Atlantic studied in six high resolution sediment cores from the upper continental slope of Brazil. The stratigraphy of the cores is mainly based on 14C AMS dating of monospecific foraminiferal samples. Changes in the upper layer tropical ocean during the deglaciation are inferred from stable oxygen isotope measurements on planktic and benthic foraminifera. Variations in the delta18O residuals are assumed to be mainly temperature related. During the Oldest and Younger Dryas cooling periods, two major deglacial THC disturbances are reported from North Atlantic sediment cores. Concomitant to the repeated THC slowdown, we observe an upper layer warming in the tropical ocean. A reduced northward heat export from the tropical areas during these periods (weak North Brazil Current) is additionally reflected by low meridional gradients in the stable oxygen records. This generally agrees with results from coupled ocean atmosphere models. : Further isotope data and age models see Arz et al. (1998) datasets: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.711735 and Arz et al. (1999) datasets: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.711752