Glacial to Holocene changes in sea surface temperature and coastal vegetation in north central Chile: high versus low latitude forcing

North central Chile is located at an important climatic transition zone between humid conditions under the influence of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds in the south and the extremely dry climate of the Atacama Desert in the north. Offshore, equatorward flowing cold waters of the Peru–Chile Current converge with relatively warmer waters coming from the low latitudes. Based on terrestrial and marine proxies from the same archive (GeoB 7139-2) (30°12′S; 71°59′W), we show that during the Glacial (between ∼33 and 19 kyr) cold sea surface temperatures paralleled enhanced humidity with high terrestrial input and abundant vegetation on the adjacent land, suggesting a stronger influence of cold waters from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Westerly Winds. While the deglacial sea surface temperature warming started at ∼19 kyr, the humidity decrease occurred around 17–16 kyr BP. The early to mid-Holocene is characterized by extremely warm and dry conditions. We suggest that climate changes were driven by fluctuations in Antarctic sea-ice extent and the circulation of the Hadley cell, both ultimately linked to insolation changes. Our records further imply warm and dry conditions in north central Chile during the Northern Hemisphere Heinrich events.