Extremely poleward shift of Antarctic Circumpolar Current by eccentricity during the Last Interglacial

Authors

Lijuan Lu, State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xufeng Zheng, State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea, Hainan University
Michael E. Weber, Institute for Geosciences, Department of Geochemistry and Petrology, University of Bonn
Victoria Peck, British Antarctic Survey
Brendan T. Reilly, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Zhong Chen, State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wen Yan, State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tianyu Chen, State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University
Hong Yan, State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xun Gong, State Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation, Shandong Academy of Sciences
Shuzhuang Wu, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne
Liwei Zheng, State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea, Hainan University
Shiming Wan, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yan Du, State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lisa Tauxe, British Antarctic Survey
Qinghua Yang, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai)
Stefanie Brachfeld, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Trevor Williams, International Ocean Discovery Program, Texas A&M University
Yasmina M. Martos, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Planetary Magnetospheres Laboratory
Zhiheng Du, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Marga García, Cadiz Oceanographic Centre. Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Spanish Research Council (CSIC)
Lara F. Pérez, Near Surface Land and Marine Geology, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Aarhus University City 81
Hu Yang, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai)
Bingyue Huang, State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea, Hainan University
Jonathan Warnock, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Shuh-Ji Kao, State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in the South China Sea, Hainan University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-6-2025

Journal / Book Title

Nature Communications

Abstract

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) exerts substantial control on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the Southern Ocean, playing a key role in modulating the global carbon cycle and climate. However, the orbital-scale forcing and future changes in the strength and position of the ACC remain elusive. Here, we reconstruct the history of ACC extending back to the Last Interglacial (LIG; 128-113 ka) using sediment cores from the Scotia Sea. Based on high-resolution measurements of sortable silt mean grain size, we find that bottom current speed is synchronized with eccentricity, superimposed by precession. During the LIG when both eccentricity and precession reached their maxima, current speed peaked in the region south of the Southern ACC front, suggesting that the Polar Front shifted ~5° southward. We propose that the low-frequency ACC frontal migration is primarily controlled by eccentricity-driven shifts in the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies, while precession-driven shifts contribute to high-frequency migration. Our findings imply under future orbital-scale scenarios, the ACC position is likely to shift north.

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-63933-x

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Lu, Lijuan; Zheng, Xufeng; Weber, Michael E.; Peck, Victoria; Reilly, Brendan T.; Chen, Zhong; Yan, Wen; Chen, Tianyu; Yan, Hong; Gong, Xun; Wu, Shuzhuang; Zheng, Liwei; Wan, Shiming; Du, Yan; Tauxe, Lisa; Yang, Qinghua; Brachfeld, Stefanie; Williams, Trevor; Martos, Yasmina M.; Du, Zhiheng; García, Marga; Pérez, Lara F.; Yang, Hu; Huang, Bingyue; Warnock, Jonathan; and Kao, Shuh-Ji, "Extremely poleward shift of Antarctic Circumpolar Current by eccentricity during the Last Interglacial" (2025). Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 791.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/earth-environ-studies-facpubs/791

Rights

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Published Citation

Lu, L., Zheng, X., Weber, M.E. et al. Extremely poleward shift of Antarctic Circumpolar Current by eccentricity during the Last Interglacial. Nat Commun 16, 8869 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63933-x