Benthic oxygen isotope ratios from a transect of five gravity cores off NW Africa

Our model results suggest that the smaller changes in the upper 1000 m of the water column are a result of the glacial sea‐level lowering of about 120 m, leading to warmer temperatures of around 1 °C and hence a smaller glacial‐interglacial stable oxygen isotope difference.

In contrast, a shoaling of the water‐mass boundary to ~2000 m water depth between the northern source and southern source water is accompanied by the expansion of a cold (close to the freezing point) southern source water in the abyssal ocean, increasing the oxygen isotope values of benthic foraminifera from the LGM in the deep Atlantic. These two effects explain the different amplitudes of glacial‐interglacial stable oxygen isotope differences in the upper and deeper water column of the Atlantic Ocean.