Prolonged warming of the Brazil Current precedes deglaciations

• AMOC “cold mode” triggers western subtropical South Atlantic warming.
• Subtropical glacial SST minimum out-of-phase with glacial maximum of higher latitudes.
• Early warming onset is coeval with benthic carbon isotope decreasing.
• Descent into glacial MIS 4 showed a prominent heat and salt accumulation.

Paleoceanographic reconstructions from the Brazil Current are scarce and lack the required temporal resolution to appropriately represent its variability during key periods of the last glacial–interglacial cycles. Here, we present the first high-temporal resolution multiproxy reconstruction of the Brazil Current at 24 °S covering the last 185 ka. During the last and penultimate glacial periods, our Mg/Ca-derived sea surface temperature (SST) record shows a strong cooling at ca. 47 and ca. 156 ka, respectively, that is followed by a warming trend from late-Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 to MIS 1 and from late-MIS 6 to MIS5e, respectively. Importantly, the Brazil Current warmed uninterruptedly towards Termination I (II) after the low SST at ca. 47 and ca. 156 ka, with no SST minima during the Last Glacial Maximum or penultimate glacial maximum. The reason for the strong cooling and the warming trend during late-MIS 3 and late-MIS 6 could reside in the favorable obliquity configuration. However, this mechanism is not sufficient to sustain the warming observed for the rest of the last and penultimate glacial periods. We propose that the change in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), as described in the literature, from a “warm” to a “cold mode” for MIS 2 and MIS 6 is responsible for the accumulation of warm waters in the subtropical western South Atlantic, preventing SST minima during the last and penultimate glacial maxima in the region. Change in benthic δ13Cδ13C corroborates that a fundamental modification in the AMOC mode might have triggered the heat accumulation. Our data also show a sudden increase in SST and surface salinity during the last glacial descent (MIS 4), indicating that the western portion of the subtropical gyres may have acted as a heat and salt reservoir, while higher latitude climates transited to a glacial background. Our findings imply that the AMOC “cold mode” induces heat storage in the subtropical western South Atlantic and, because of that, the last two regional SST minima occurred out-of-phase with the glacial maxima of higher latitudes.