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Volcanic trigger of ocean deoxygenation during Cordilleran ice sheet retreat

Nature volume 611, pages 74–80 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

North Pacific deoxygenation events during the last deglaciation were sustained over millennia by high export productivity, but the triggering mechanisms and their links to deglacial warming remain uncertain1,2,3. Here we find that initial deoxygenation in the North Pacific immediately after the Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) retreat4 was associated with increased volcanic ash in seafloor sediments. Timing of volcanic inputs relative to CIS retreat suggests that regional explosive volcanism was initiated by ice unloading5,6. We posit that iron fertilization by volcanic ash7,8,9 during CIS retreat fuelled ocean productivity in this otherwise iron-limited region, and tipped the marine system towards sustained deoxygenation. We also identify older deoxygenation events linked to CIS retreat over the past approximately 50,000 years (ref. 4). Our findings suggest that the apparent coupling between the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and solid-Earth systems occurs on relatively short timescales and can act as an important driver for ocean biogeochemical change.

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Fig. 1: Geology and oceanography background.
Fig. 2: Records of deglacial deoxygenation in the Northeast Pacific.
Fig. 3: Records of deglacial volcanism and ice sheet retreat on the Northeast Pacific margin.
Fig. 4: Proposed links between ice sheet retreat, volcanism and deoxygenation in the Northeast Pacific.
Fig. 5: Records of ice sheet retreat and deoxygenation on the Northeast Pacific margin in the past 50 kyr.

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Data availability

The geochemical datasets generated by this study and the data compilations are publicly available at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6770650) and Pangea (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.947051; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.947052). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

Computer codes used in the study are publicly available (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6770650).

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Muratli for assistance in geochemical analysis at Oregon State University. Funding for this study was provided by US NSF award 1502754 to A.C.M. and 1801511 to C.L.B. J.D. was supported by the ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship 19-2 FEL-32. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 891489. We thank the Oregon State University Marine and Geology Repository and the International Ocean Discovery Program for access to core materials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Jianghui Du, Alan C. Mix & Brian A. Haley

  2. Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Jianghui Du

  3. Department of Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Christina L. Belanger &  Sharon

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  1. Jianghui Du
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Contributions

J.D. and A.C.M. designed this study. J.D. conducted the geochemical analysis and modelling, data compilation and synthesis and led the writing of the manuscript. A.C.M. assisted the overall conceptualization and interpretation of results and contributed substantially to the writing of the manuscript. B.A.H. assisted with the interpretation of geochemical data and writing of the manuscript. C.L.B. and Sharon helped with the faunal–trace metal data comparison and analysis.

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Correspondence to Jianghui Du.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Modern biogeochemistry of the GOA.

a, Net primary production, based on the Vertically Generalized Production Model and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite results120, integrated over the euphotic zone and averaged over the spring and summer months (April to September) from 2002 to 2020. b, Surface water dissolved Fe concentrations, measured53,54,55,121,122,123 (triangles, averaged over 0–100 m) and from a high-resolution regional hind-cast model124 (background colour, averaged over 0–100 m and the spring and summer months from 1980 to 2013). The colour bar is in log scale. c, Surface NO3− climatology (μM, 1-degree grid) from the World Ocean Atlas 2018 (ref. 125), averaged over 0–100 m and the spring and summer months. d, Surface salinity climatology (0.25-degree grid) from the World Ocean Atlas 2018 (ref. 126), at 0 m and averaged over the summer months. The three black lines in a–c are the isobaths of 300 m, indicating the depth of the shelf break; 680 m, the depth of site 85JC/U1419; and 3,680 m, the depth of site 87JC/U1418. The three black lines in d are the isohalines of 30, 31 and 32. The white arrow in d indicates the Alaska Coastal Current.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Bchron62 Bayesian age models.

a–f, Age model construction for the intermediate-depth site4,17. a, Radiocarbon dates (points) calibrated using the Marine20 curve21 and the modelled depth–age relationship (median line with 1σ range). b, Sedimentation rate (median line with 1σ range). c, The depth conversion used to align 85JC to U1419. d, The normalized and weighted RMSE of GRA and MS misfits as a function of the deviation from the depth conversion in c. e, Aligned magnetic susceptibility records. f, Aligned GRA density records. g–k, Age model construction for the abyssal site20. Only MS was used for alignment in this case. g, Radiocarbon dates (points) calibrated using the Marine20 curve21 and the modelled depth–age relationship (median line with 1σ range). h, Sedimentation rate (median line with 1σ range). i, The depth conversion used to align 87JC to U1418. j, The normalized RMSE of MS misfit as a function of the deviation from the depth conversion in i. k, Aligned magnetic susceptibility records.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Geochemistry of the volcanic endmembers identified by cluster analysis.

a, Total alkali-silica diagram127. Each point represents a sample and the 1σ confidence ellipses of the clusters are shown. b, Chondrite128 normalized REE patterns. c, Primitive mantle128 normalized trace element patterns. The shaded intervals indicate the 1σ ranges (geometric mean and standard deviation) of the endmembers. d, Locations of volcanic samples. The location markers are jittered to reduce overlap on the plot. Unfilled circles indicate lava (whole rock) samples. Filled circles indicate tephra (volcanic glass) samples. The locations of the tephra samples are the locations at which they were deposited

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Geochemistry of the potential terrigenous sediment endmembers compared with sediments at the intermediate-depth site.

a–c, Bi-element plots showing the relationships between GOA Holocene and LGM (H&L) sediments and the terrigenous endmembers90,91,92,93,94,95,96. d, Aitchison distances among the GOA Holocene and LGM sediments, and between them and the terrigenous endmembers90,91,92,93,94,95,96. Distances are calculated for all possible sample pairs. The y-axis is sorted in the order of increasing median distance. The results are summarized using violin plots. The first row in d indicates the internal differences among the GOA Holocene and LGM samples, whereas the other rows indicate external differences between the GOA samples and terrigenous endmembers.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Geochemical data inversion at the intermediate-depth site.

a, Weight fractions of the volcanic endmembers and the terrigenous fractions. b, Total volcanic fraction versus total sediment MAR4. Lines and shaded intervals (95% CI) indicate linear regression (P > 0.5). c, Box plots of weighted residuals of the elements in the solution of the geochemical inverse problem. Boxes indicate the interquartile range; thick lines indicate the medians; whiskers extend to 1.5 times the interquartile range away from the boxes

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 6 Records of volcanism since the LGM compiled by this study compared with that of ref. 5.

a, Eruption frequencies of volcanoes binned at 2-kyr intervals. For glaciated volcanoes, the total frequency, as well as the frequency of regional glaciated volcanoes from the Northeast Pacific margin and the rest of the world, are shown. b, The ratios of the eruption frequency of the glaciated volcanoes (global total, from the Northeast Pacific margin or elsewhere) to that of the global unglaciated volcanoes, normalized to the mean ratios during the LGM, used as proxies for glacially induced volcanism. The ribbons indicate interquartile ranges. The eruption frequency ratio increases between 12 and 6 ka in Huybers and Langmuir5, much later than our new compilation (17–11 ka). However, this is because the eruptions of unglaciated volcanoes were under-sampled in Huybers and Langmuir5 during the deglaciation because their database was smaller (a). With greater data coverage, this issue of under-sampling seems resolved in our new compilation

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 7 Northeast Pacific productivity proxies.

a, CaCO3 content19,28. b, Sediment Sr/Al ratio. c, Counts of coccolith per field of view19. d, TOC content28. e, Opal content28. f, Bulk sediment δ15N, corrected for terrestrial organic matter input28. g, Sediment Ba/Al ratio. The y-axis scales are different between the intermediate-depth and abyssal sites. h, Abundances of productivity-related benthic foraminifera species Islandiella norcrossi from the intermediate-depth site and Elphidium batialis from the abyssal site12,23. The colour legends in a–h are the same

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 8 Records of Northeast Pacific deoxygenation compared with other regional and global climate proxies.

a, Re/Al ratios from the GOA sites. b, Benthic–planktonic radiocarbon age difference (with 1σ uncertainty) at the intermediate-depth site4,17, a proxy for intermediate water ventilation. c, δ18O (with 1σ uncertainty) of surface seawater in the Northeast Pacific after removing global ice volume effect29, a proxy for surface salinity. d, Relative sea level in the northern GOA31 (points with smoothed lines and 95% CI). e, 231Pa/230Th (with 1σ uncertainty) from the North Atlantic32, a proxy for the overturning strength of the AMOC. e, Terrestrial 4He flux (with 1σ uncertainty) from the subpolar North Pacific33, a proxy for mineral dust flux that is not affected by volcanic ash input.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Histories of the CIS.

a, Radiocarbon-based ice sheet extent reconstruction from 20 ka to 12 ka (ref. 41). b, Changes of ice thickness in the ICE-7G model from 20 ka to 12 ka (ref. 25). Red colour indicates ice loss, whereas blue colour indicates ice accumulation.

Extended Data Fig. 10 Sensitivity of the CIS volume to the surface temperature forcing in the PISM model27.

a, Temperature forcing used in the sensitivity experiments (relative to the modern mean) derived from the following temperature records: EPICA117, GRIP115, NGRIP116, VOSTOK118, ODP 1012 and 1020 (ref. 119). b, Modelled CIS volume in terms of sea-level equivalent. In the EPICA and GRIP experiments, both 5-km and 10-km spatial resolutions were used, whereas in other experiments, only 10-km resolution was used27. c, Rate of CIS volume change (500-year binned averages). d, Lead–lag between the ice volume response and the temperature forcing. Estimated time-lags are indicated by the vertical lines according to the highest negative cross-correlation and the results are shown in the legends inside brackets. e, Sensitivity of the CIS volume to the temperature forcing. Linear regression (lines, r2 between 0.82 and 0.94, P ≪ 0.05) were performed after shifting the temperature forcing by the time-lags estimated in c. Estimated sensitivities in metres of sea-level equivalent per 1 °C are shown in the legends inside brackets. f, Predicted rates of CIS volume change (median values) if the GOA SST record is used as the temperature forcing. The results were estimated using the ice volume–temperature relationship in each sensitivity experiment. The final estimate in Fig. 3h incorporates all the sensitivity experiments and uncertainties

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Du, J., Mix, A.C., Haley, B.A. et al. Volcanic trigger of ocean deoxygenation during Cordilleran ice sheet retreat. Nature 611, 74–80 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05267-y

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