Abstract
The last deglaciation provides an opportunity to assess the response of El Niño–Southern Oscillation to rapid warming and disruptions of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, both projected in the near future. We present a reconstruction of deglacial El Niño–Southern Oscillation activity using finely laminated sediments from the El Niño–Southern Oscillation-sensitive Peruvian margin. An interannual record of titanium fluxes, a proxy for riverine discharge, shows that the frequency of extreme Eastern Pacific El Niño events and the amplitude of El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability were higher during the deglaciation and peaked during episodes of massive iceberg discharge into the North Atlantic. Maximum El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability occurred in the early phase of Heinrich event 1, at ~17.3–16.7 kyr BP, associated with at least five extreme floods per century in southern Peru. This proxy evidence linking El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic suggests a possible increase in El Niño-related extreme climatic events under future Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakening.
Data availability
The Tinorm time series and ENSO metrics of sediment cores G14 and M77/2-005-3 are available for reviewers at https://figshare.com/s/e4da7a2aed5d676d6100. The dataset will be made publicly available if and after the article is accepted for publication, with doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.29583158. The PISCOp rainfall dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21127423.v2.
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Acknowledgements
This publication was supported by the IRD-DPF and ANR-15-JCLI-0003-03 BELMONT FORUM PACMEDY. Part of XRF data were obtained on the ALYSES facility (IRD-UPMC) that was supported by grants from Région Ile-de-France. This work is a contribution of the Collaborative Research Project 754 “Climate-Biogeochemistry interactions in the Tropical Ocean” (www.sfb754.de), which is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). We would like to thank the crew and scientists aboard R/V Meteor cruises M77/2 in 2008 and thank Bo Thamdrup, chief scientist of the Galathea-3 expedition (Leg 14), and Bente Lomstein, who conducted the core sampling onboard the RV Vaedderen. We thank SENAMHI and NOAA for sharing climate datasets.
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M.Y. and M.C. contributed equally to this work. M.Y., B.T., D.G., and M.C. designed the study. M.Y. and M.C. wrote the manuscript. R.S., P.M., and H.B. measured XRF data. M.Y. and D.E.M. analyzed data. M.Y., M.C., B.T., D.G., R.S., P.M., H.B., and D.E.M. contributed to the interpretation of the data and the preparation of the final manuscript.
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Yseki, M., Turcq, B., Gutiérrez, D. et al. El Niño–Southern Oscillation strengthened by North Atlantic Iceberg discharge during Heinrich stadial 1. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03247-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03247-y
