Arctic Ocean temperatures influence ecosystems, sea ice, species diversity, biogeochemical cycling, seafloor methane stability, deep-sea circulation, and CO2 cycling. Today’s Arctic Ocean and surrounding regions are undergoing climatic changes often attributed to “Arctic amplification” – that is, amplified warming in Arctic regions due to sea-ice loss and other processes, relative to global mean temperature. However, the long-term evolution of Arctic amplification is poorly constrained due to lack of continuous sediment proxy records of Arctic Ocean temperature, sea ice cover and circulation. Here we present reconstructions of Arctic Ocean intermediate depth water (AIW) temperatures and sea-ice cover spanning the last ~ 1.5 million years (Ma) of orbitally-paced glacial/interglacial cycles (GIC). Using Mg/Ca paleothermometry of the ostracode Krithe and sea-ice planktic and benthic indicator species, we suggest that the Mid-Brunhes Event (MBE), a major climate transition ~ 400–350 ka, involved fundamental changes in AIW temperature and sea-ice variability. Enhanced Arctic amplification at the MBE suggests a major climate threshold was reached at ~ 400 ka involving Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), inflowing warm Atlantic Layer water, ice sheet, sea-ice and ice-shelf feedbacks, and sensitivity to higher post-MBE interglacial CO2 concentrations.

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[1] Low-frequency high-magnitude hydrologic events mobilize a disproportionate amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from watersheds, but few studies measure the role of extreme storms in exporting organic carbon from croplands. We use high-resolution measurements of storm runoff to quantify DOC and particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes from an agricultural field during consecutive tropical storms that delivered 41 cm of rainfall to the Virginia Coastal Plain. Over a 2 week period, we measured exports of 22 kg DOC ha À1 and 11.3 kg POC ha À1. Ultraviolet absorbance measurements indicate that the aromatic DOC fraction systematically increased as plant-derived aliphatic carbon was depleted during the initial event. Croplands can have event-scale carbon losses that equal or exceed published estimates of annual export for perennial streams draining forested and mixed land use watersheds. We quantify aromatic DOC fractions approaching 50%, indicating that agricultural stormflow can produce a significant load of relatively photoreactive carbon. Citation: Caverly, E., J. M. Kaste, G. S. Hancock, and R. M. Chambers (2013), Dissolved and particulate organic carbon fluxes from an agricultural watershed during consecutive tropical storms, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40,[5147][5148][5149][5150][5151][5152]