NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - ODP 980 Holocene Benthic Foraminifera Isotope Data

The conversion of surface water to deep water in the North Atlantic results in the release of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere, which may have amplified millennial-scale climate variability during glacial times and could even have contributed to the past 11,700 years of relatively mild climate (known as the Holocene epoch). Here we investigate changes in the carbon-isotope composition of benthic foraminifera throughout the Holocene and find that deep-water production varied on a centennial-millennial timescale. These variations may be linked to surface and atmospheric events that hint at a contribution to climate change over this period.