Glacial deep ocean sequestration of CO2 driven by the eastern equatorial Pacific biologic pump

•Deep Panama Basin multi-core depth transect spanning 0-50 ka.•Novel benthic foraminifera B/Ca proxy records carbonate chemistry.•Reconstructed ΔCO32− reveals higher DIC>3.2 km in EEP during last glacial period.•Enhanced EEP biologic pump imposed greater CO2 storage at expense of atmosphere.

The potential influence of low latitude ocean primary productivity on glacial atmospheric carbon dioxide levels has proven challenging to deduce using mass accumulation rates (MARs) of biogenic particulates in deep sea sediment cores. Benthic foraminiferal B/Ca serves as a proxy for past seawater calcite saturation state, and thereby provides a fresh perspective on this outstanding paleoceanographic problem. Here we employ Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi B/Ca in the Panama Basin region of the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) to investigate the nature of deep tropical Pacific carbon storage over the past 50 ka BP. We present evidence for persistently lower deep Panama Basin calcite saturation state, reflecting an increase in total carbon dioxide storage, during the last ice age relative to the Holocene. These results reflect the modification of inflowing deep waters by overlying export productivity, and support the concept of an invigorated glacial EEP soft-tissue pump possibly driven by oceanic nutrient (iron and silica) redistribution. Benthic Cibicidoides spp. carbon-13 is consistent with this conclusion by exhibiting substantially lighter values during glacial time, reflecting the accumulation of metabolic carbon dioxide in the deep tropical Pacific. Counterintuitively, downcore application of the Globorotalia menardii calcite fragmentation index (MFI) reveals enhanced glacial sedimentary calcite preservation in the Panama Basin. Together these results point towards a systematic decoupling of bottom water chemistry from biogenic burial fluxes: the crux of the aforementioned traditional paleoproductivity problem.