One‐To‐One Coupling Between Southern Ocean Productivity and Antarctica Climate
Lijuan Lu, Xufeng Zheng, Zhong Chen, Wen Yan, Shuzhuang Wu, Liwei Zheng, Xuesong Wang, Chen Yu, Shuh‐Ji Kao
Abstract
Abstract The Southern Ocean is supposed to play a crucial role in influencing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. However, the dynamic relationships among the rate of Southern Ocean upwelling, atmospheric CO 2 concentration, and Antarctic climate at millennial timescales remain unclear. Here, we present high‐resolution color reflectance component b* and natural gamma radiation from the southern Scotia Sea sector of the Southern Ocean to reconstruct productivity over the past 160 ka. We find that these two independent productivity proxies, reflecting the signal of nutrient supply in this region, captured millennial‐scale upwelling that covaried in timing with Heinrich Stadials and Antarctic warming events, supporting the bipolar seesaw mechanism. The one‐to‐one coupling of variability between productivity and atmospheric CO 2 concentrations reveals that the upwelling is closely linked to atmospheric CO 2 and climate change.