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ABSTRACT The asynchronous relationship between millennial-scale temperature changes over Greenland and Antarctica during the last glacial period has led to the notion of a bipolar seesaw

which acts to redistribute heat depending on the state of meridional overturning circulation within the Atlantic Ocean. Here we present new records from the South Atlantic that show rapid

changes during the last deglaciation that were instantaneous (within dating uncertainty) and of opposite sign to those observed in the North Atlantic. Our results demonstrate a direct link

between the abrupt changes associated with variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the more gradual adjustments characteristic of the Southern Ocean. These results

emphasize the importance of the Southern Ocean for the development and transmission of millennial-scale climate variability and highlight its role in deglacial climate change and the

associated rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access

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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS NATURAL VARIABILITY HAS DOMINATED ATLANTIC MERIDIONAL OVERTURNING CIRCULATION SINCE 1900

Article Open access 25 April 2022 INTENSIFIED ATLANTIC MULTIDECADAL VARIABILITY IN A WARMING CLIMATE Article 13 February 2025 INDIAN OCEAN WARMING AS A DRIVER OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC WARMING

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_Clim. Past_ 3, 485–497 (2007) Article  Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank J. Riker and C. Lear for analytical advice and assistance and H. Medley for help with

sediment processing. Sample material used in this project was provided by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Deep-Sea Sample Repository. We thank R. Lotti and G. Lozefski for help with

sampling. Support for the collection and curating facilities of the core collection is provided by the US National Science Foundation through grant OCE00-02380 and the Office of Naval

Research through grant N00014-02-1-0073. The work was supported by a National Science Foundation grant (OCE-0435703) to W.S.B. and S.B. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS S.B. designed the research and

performed foraminiferal Mg/Ca analyses, P.D. performed benthic foraminiferal counts and picked planktonic foraminifera for 14C dating and Mg/Ca analyses, M.J.V. performed planktonic

foraminiferal counts, J.P. performed diatom counts and G.K. helped with interpretation. All authors contributed towards preparing the manuscript. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Paula Diz 

& Gregor Knorr Present address: Present addresses: Laboratoire des Bio-Indicateurs Actuels et Fossiles, Angers University, 49045 Angers Cedex 01, France (P.D.); Alfred Wegener Institute,

27570 Bremerhaven, Germany (G.K.)., AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK Stephen Barker, Paula Diz, Jennifer Pike, Gregor

Knorr & Ian R. Hall * British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK Maryline J. Vautravers * Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964-8000,

USA , Wallace S. Broecker Authors * Stephen Barker View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Paula Diz View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Maryline J. Vautravers View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jennifer Pike View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Gregor Knorr View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ian R. Hall

View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Wallace S. Broecker View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Stephen Barker. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION This file contains Supplementary Data, Supplementary References,

Supplementary Table S1 and Supplementary Figures S1-S9 with Legends (PDF 798 kb) POWERPOINT SLIDES POWERPOINT SLIDE FOR FIG. 1 POWERPOINT SLIDE FOR FIG. 2 POWERPOINT SLIDE FOR FIG. 3 RIGHTS

AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Barker, S., Diz, P., Vautravers, M. _et al._ Interhemispheric Atlantic seesaw response during the last

deglaciation. _Nature_ 457, 1097–1102 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07770 Download citation * Received: 31 July 2008 * Accepted: 12 January 2009 * Issue Date: 26 February 2009 * DOI:

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