Author Response to Reviewer 2

Abstract

Records of past warm periods are essential for understanding interglacial climate system dynamics. Marine Isotope Stage 11 occurred from 425 to 394 ka, when global ice volume was the lowest, sea level was the highest, and terrestrial temperatures were the warmest of the last 500 kyr. Because of its extreme character, this interval has been considered an analog for the next century of climate change. The Bering Sea is ideally situated to record how opening or closing of the Pacific-Arctic Ocean gateway (Bering Strait) impacted primary productivity, sea ice, and sediment transport in the past; however, little is known about this region prior to 125 ka. IODP Expedition 323 to the Bering Sea offered the unparalleled opportunity to look in detail at time periods older than had been previously retrieved using gravity and piston cores. Here we present a multi-proxy record for Marine Isotope Stages 12 to 10 from Site U1345, located near the continental shelfslope break. MIS 11 is bracketed by highly productive laminated intervals that may have been triggered by flooding of the Beringian shelf. Although sea ice is reduced during the early MIS 11 laminations, it remains present at the site throughout both glacials and MIS 11. High summer insolation is associated with higher productivity but colder sea surface temperatures, which implies that productivity was likely driven by increased upwelling. Multiple examples of Pacific-Atlantic teleconnections are presented including laminations deposited at the end of MIS 11 in synchrony with millennial-scale expansions in sea ice in the Bering Sea and stadial events seen in the North Atlantic. When global eustatic sea level was at its peak, a series of anomalous conditions are seen at U1345. We examine whether this is evidence for a reversal of Bering Strait throughflow, an advance of Beringian tidewater glaciers, or a turbidite. Disciplines