Hydroclimate variability in the Caribbean during North Atlantic Heinrich cooling events (H8 and H9)

Yassine Ait Brahim; Matthew C Peros; André E Viau; Mercedes Liedtke; Jesús M Pajón; Julio Valdes; Xianglei Li; R Lawrence Edwards; Eduard G Reinhardt; Frank Oliva

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-24610-x

Hydroclimate variability in the Caribbean during North Atlantic Heinrich cooling events (H8 and H9)

Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 1;12(1):20719. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24610-x.

Authors

Yassine Ait Brahim^{1

2}, Matthew C Peros³, André E Viau⁴, Mercedes Liedtke⁴, Jesús M Pajón⁵, Julio Valdes⁶, Xianglei Li⁷, R Lawrence Edwards⁸, Eduard G Reinhardt⁹, Frank Oliva⁴

Affiliations

¹ International Water Research Institute, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco. yassine.aitbrahim@um6p.ma.
² Department of Environment and Geography, Bishop's University, 2600 College Street, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada. yassine.aitbrahim@um6p.ma.
³ Department of Environment and Geography, Bishop's University, 2600 College Street, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
⁴ Laboratory for Climate Change Research (LCC), Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁵ Department of Paleogeography and Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba, Obispo 61, Plaza de Armas, La Habana Vieja, CP: 10 100, Havana, Cuba.
⁶ Digital Technologies Research Centre, Data Science for Complex Systems Team M50, National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal Rd, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0R6, Canada.
⁷ Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China.
⁸ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁹ School of Earth, Environment, and Society, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.

Abstract

We present a speleothem record from western Cuba, spanning the period 98.7-84.9 ka BP. Our record shows two distinctive periods of high δ¹⁸O corresponding to dry and/or cold periods during 85-87.6 and 90.2-93.1 ka BP, synchronous with Heinrich events 8 and 9 (H8 and H9). Hence, we provide the first proxy evidence of the local Caribbean climate response to H8 and H9. Interestingly, H8 is more pronounced compared to H9, which may be a local response to lower temperatures in the North Atlantic resulting in a weak AMOC and reduced deep water formation, therefore a stronger south shift of the ITCZ. Our data complement existing speleothem records from western Cuba which, collectively, provide a nearly continuous paleoclimate time-series spanning the last 100 ka BP, indicating a consistent response to millennial-scale events as dry and/or cooler conditions. The comparison with regional paleoclimate records reveals an anti-phased relationship with South America, caused by the southern movements of the ITCZ during millennial-scale events which lead to dry conditions in the Caribbean and a stronger South American Monsoon System.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Caribbean Region
Cold Temperature*
Cuba
Ethnicity*
Humans
Phase Transition