Ambiguity over the Eocene opening times of the Tasman Gateway and Drake Passage makes it difficult to determine the initiation time of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). If the Tasman Gateway opened later than Drake Passage, then Australia may have prevented the proto-ACC from forming. Recent modelling results have shown that only a relatively weak circumpolar transport results under Eocene surface forcing. This leads to warm and buoyant coastal water around Antarctica, which may impede the formation of deep waters and convective processes. This suggests that a change in deep water formation might be required to increase the density contrast across the Southern Ocean and increase circumpolar transport. Here we use a simple reduced gravity model with two basins, to represent the Atlantic and the Pacific. This fixes the density difference between surface and deep water and allows us to isolate the impact of deep water formation on circumpolar transport. With no obstacle on the southern boundary the circumpolar current increases its transport from 82.3 to 270.0 Sv with deep water formation. Placing an Antipodean landmass on the southern boundary reduces this transport as the landmass increases in size. However, circumpolar flow north of this landmass remains a possibility even without deep water formation. Weak circumpolar transport continues until the basin is completely blocked by the Antipodes. When the Antipodes is instead allowed to split from the southern boundary, circumpolar transport recovers to its unobstructed value. Flow rapidly switches to south of the Antipodes when the gateway is narrow.

The quantitative and objective characterization of dissolution intensity in fossil planktonic foraminiferal shells could be used to reconstruct past changes in bottom water carbonate ion concentration. Among proxies measuring the degree of dissolution of planktonic foraminiferal shells, X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (CT) based characterization of apparent shell density appears to have good potential to facilitate quantitative reconstruction of carbonate chemistry. However, unlike the well-established benthic foraminiferal B/Ca ratio-based proxy, only a regional calibration of the CT-based proxy exists based on a limited number of data points covering mainly low-saturation state waters. Here we determined by CT-based proxy the shell dissolution intensity of planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides, Globorotalia inflata, Globigerinoides ruber, and Trilobatus sacculifer from a collection of core top samples in the Southern Atlantic covering higher saturation states, and assessed the characteristics and reliability of CT-based proxy. We observed that the CT-based proxy is generally controlled by deep-water Δ[CO32–] like the B/Ca proxy, but its effective range of Δ[CO32–] is between –20 to 10 µmolkg–1. In this range, the CT-based proxy appears directly and strongly related to deep-water Δ[CO32–], whereas the B/Ca of benthic foraminifera appears to be affected by porewater saturation in carbonate-rich substrates. On the other hand, the CT-based proxy is affected by supralysoclinal dissolution in areas with high productivity. Like the B/Ca proxy, the CT-based proxy requires species-specific calibration, but the effect of species-specific shell difference in susceptibility to dissolution on the proxy is small.

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e (130-116 ka) represents a ‘process analogue’ for future anthropogenic warming. Climate model simulations for MIS 5e have previously failed to produce Southern Ocean sea-surface temperatures (SST) and sea-ice extent reconstructed from marine sediment core proxy records. Here we compare state of the art HadGEM3 and HadCM3 simulations of Peak MIS 5e Southern Ocean summer SST and September sea-ice concentrations with the latest marine sediment core proxy data. The model outputs and proxy records show the least consistency in the regions located near the present-day Southern Ocean gyre boundaries, implying that model simulations are currently unable to fully realise changes in gyre extent and position during MIS 5e. Including Heinrich 11 meltwater forcing in Peak MIS 5e climate simulations improves the likeness to proxy data but it is clear that longer (3-4 ka) run times are required to fully test the consistency between models and data.

The total meridional heat transport (MHT) is relatively stable across different climates. Nevertheless, the strength of individual processes contributing to the total transport are not stable. Here we investigate the MHT and its main components especially in the atmosphere, in five coupled climate model simulations from the Deep-Time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP). These simulations target the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), a geological time period with high CO2 concentrations, analogous to the upper range of end-of-century CO2 projections. Preindustrial and early Eocene simulations at a range of CO2 levels (1x, 3x and 6x preindustrial values) are used to quantify the MHT changes in response to both CO2 and non-CO2 related forcings. We found that atmospheric poleward heat transport increases with CO2, while the effect of non-CO2 boundary conditions (e.g., paleogeography, land ice, vegetation) is causing more poleward atmospheric heat transport on the Northern and less on the Southern Hemisphere. The changes in paleogeography increase the heat transport via transient eddies at the mid-latitudes in the Eocene. The Hadley cells have an asymmetric response to both the CO2 and non-CO2 constraints. The poleward latent heat transport of monsoon systems increases with rising CO2 concentrations, but this effect is offset by the Eocene topography. Our results show that the changes in the monsoon systems’ latent heat transport is a robust feature of CO2 warming, which is in line with the currently observed precipitation increase of present day monsoon systems.

Laterite is a red weathering crust developed with various rocks and Quaternary loose sediments as its parent material in the tropics and subtropics regions of the world, and it is also the most widely distributed Quaternary earthy accumulation in China. Since the 1930s, most researchers have believed that the fluvial reticulated laterite in southern China was influenced by the warm and humid climate of the Middle Pleistocene. In recent years, the remains of Paleolithic human activities are often found in the reticulated laterite of southern China. However, the study of laterite chronology is sporadic or there is no critical chronological analysis, which causes uncertainty in the identification and discussion of the ages of reticulated laterite and Paleolithic sites in South China. In this study, a paleolithic site found in fluvial reticulated laterite in South China was systematically tested by quartz optical luminescence dating and geomorphic process analysis. The results show that, (1) The T3 terrace, an archive of hominin activity in the study area, primarily formed between 56 and 11 ka. (2) Reticulated laterite cannot be used simply to determine the ages of the Paleolithic sites found in this stratum, and typical reticulated laterite cannot be used as a marker for climatic stratigraphy and chronostratigraphy. The fluvial reticulated laterite in the southern tropics, under suitable hydrothermal conditions, can form within tens of thousands of years or even within 10 ka. (3) Human activities can also lead to an inversion in the age of reticulated red soil.