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A late glacial Antarctic climate teleconnection and variable Holocene seasonality at Lake Pupuke, Auckland, New Zealand

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Abstract

We present the first continuous paleolimnological reconstruction from the North Island of New Zealand (37°S) that spans the last 48.2 cal kyr. A tephra- and radiocarbon-based chronology was developed to infer the timing of marked paleolimnological changes in Lake Pupuke, Auckland, New Zealand, identified using sedimentology, magnetic susceptibility, grain size and geochemistry (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur concentrations and fluxes, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes). Variable erosional influx, biomass and benthic REDOX conditions are linked to changing effective precipitation and seasonality within three inferred broad intervals of climatic change: (1) the Last Glacial Coldest Phase (LGCP) of reduced effective precipitation and cooler temperatures, from 28.8 to 18.0 cal kyr BP, (2) the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT) of increasing effective precipitation and warmer conditions, from 18.0 to 10.2 cal kyr BP, and (3) a Holocene interval of high effective precipitation, beginning with a warm period of limited seasonality from 10.2 cal kyr BP and followed by increasing seasonality from 7.6 cal kyr BP. The LGCP and LGIT also contain millennial-scale climate events, including the coldest inferred glacial conditions during the LGCP from 27.8 to 26.0 and 22.0–19.0 cal kyr BP, and a climate reversal in the LGIT associated with lower lake level, from 14.5 to 13.8 cal kyr BP, coeval with the Antarctic Cold Reversal. The onset of seasonal thermal stratification occurred at 5.7 cal kyr BP and was linked to natural eutrophication of Lake Pupuke, which produced enhanced organic sedimentation.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (Project UOA-0517) and Natural Environment Research Council grant (Project IP/995/1107). We would like to thank Peter Crossley, Brendan Hall, Dave Wackrow, David Jenkinson, Hiroki Ogawa and Aleksandra Zawalna-Geer for their expertise and assistance during fieldwork. Two anonymous reviewers, Mark Brenner and Thomas Whitmore are also thanked for their revisions that have helped improve this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Thomas Stephens

  2. School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Thomas Stephens, Daniel Atkin, Paul Augustinus & Philip Shane

  3. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Auckland, New Zealand

    Andrew Lorrey

  4. Department of Geography, University of Swansea, Swansea, Wales, UK

    Alayne Street-Perrott

  5. Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Andreas Nilsson & Ian Snowball

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  1. Thomas Stephens
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  2. Daniel Atkin
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Correspondence to Thomas Stephens.

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Stephens, T., Atkin, D., Augustinus, P. et al. A late glacial Antarctic climate teleconnection and variable Holocene seasonality at Lake Pupuke, Auckland, New Zealand. J Paleolimnol 48, 785–800 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9644-z

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