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The seasonality of hydroclimate during past periods of warmer than modern global temperatures is a critical component for understanding future climate change scenarios. Although only partially analogous to these scenarios, the last interglacial (LIG, Marine Isotope Stage 5e, ~127–117 ka) is a popular test bed. We present coral δ18O monthly resolved records from multiple Bonaire (southern Caribbean) fossil corals (Diploria strigosa) that date to between 130 and 118 ka. These records represent up to 37 years and cover a total of 105 years, offering insights into the seasonality and characteristics of LIG tropical Atlantic hydroclimate. Our coral δ18O records and available coral Sr/Ca-sea surface temperature (SST) records reveal new insights into the variable relationship between the seasonality of tropical Atlantic seawater δ18O (δ18Oseawater) and SST. Coral δ18O seasonality is found to covary with SST and insolation seasonality throughout the LIG, culminating in significantly higher than modern values at 124 and 126 ka. At 124 ka, we reconstruct a 2 month lead of the coral δ18O versus the Sr/Ca-SST annual cycle and increased δ18Oseawater seasonality. A fully coupled climate model simulates a concomitant increase of southern Caribbean Sea summer precipitation and depletion of summer δ18Oseawater. LIG hydroclimate at Bonaire differed from today's semiarid climate with a minor rainy season during winter. Cumulatively, our coral δ18O, δ18Oseawater, and model findings indicate a mid-LIG northward expansion of the South American Intertropical Convergence Zone into the southern Caribbean Sea, highlighting the importance of regional aspects within model and proxy reconstructions of LIG hydroclimate seasonality.

Reconstructions of last interglacial (LIG, MIS 5e, ∼127–117 ka) climate offer insights into the natural response and variability of the climate system during a period partially analogous to future climate change scenarios. We present well preserved fossil corals (Diploria strigosa) recovered from the southern Caribbean island of Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands). These have been precisely dated by the 230Th/U-method to between 130 and 120 ka ago. Annual banding of the coral skeleton enabled construction of time windows of monthly resolved strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) temperature proxy records. In conjunction with a previously published 118 ka coral record, our eight records of up to 37 years in length, cover a total of 105 years within the LIG period. From these, sea surface temperature (SST) seasonality and variability in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean is reconstructed. We detect similar to modern SST seasonality of ∼2.9 °C during the early (130 ka) and the late LIG (120–118 ka). However, within the mid-LIG, a significantly higher than modern SST seasonality of 4.9 °C (at 126 ka) and 4.1 °C (at 124 ka) is observed. These findings are supported by climate model simulations and are consistent with the evolving amplitude of orbitally induced changes in seasonality of insolation throughout the LIG, irrespective of wider climatic instabilities that characterised this period. The climate model simulations suggest that the SST seasonality changes documented in our LIG coral Sr/Ca records are representative of larger regions within the tropical North Atlantic. These simulations also suggest that the reconstructed SST seasonality increase during the mid-LIG is caused primarily by summer warming. A 124 ka old coral documents, for the first time, evidence of decadal SST variability in the tropical North Atlantic during the LIG, akin to that observed in modern instrumental records.

We compared the suitability of two skeletal materials of the Atlantic brain coral Diploria strigosa for 230Th/U-dating: the commonly used bulk material comprising all skeletal elements and the denser theca wall material. Eight fossil corals of presumably Last Interglacial age from Bonaire, southern Caribbean Sea, were investigated, and several sub-samples were dated from each coral. For four corals, both the ages and the activity ratios of the bulk material and theca wall agree within uncertainty. Three corals show significantly older ages for their bulk material than for their theca wall material as well as substantially elevated 232Th content and (230Th/238U) ratios. The bulk material samples of another coral show younger ages and lower (230Th/238U) ratios than the corresponding theca wall samples. This coral also contains a considerable amount of 232Th. The application of the available open-system models developed to account for post-depositional diagenetic effects in corals shows that none of the models can successfully be applied to the Bonaire corals. The most likely explanation for this observation is that the assumptions of the models are not fulfilled by our data set. Comparison of the theca wall and bulk material data enables us to obtain information about the open-system processes that affected the corals. The corals showing apparently older ages for their bulk material were probably affected by contamination with a secondary (detrital) phase. The most likely source of the detrital material is carbonate sand. The higher (230Th/232Th) ratio of this material implies that detrital contamination would have a much stronger impact on the ages than a contaminant with a bulk Earth (230Th/232Th) ratio and that the threshold for the commonly applied 232Th reliability criterion would be much lower than the generally used value of 1 ng g−1. The coral showing apparently younger ages for its bulk material was probably influenced by more than one diagenetic process. A potential scenario is a combination of detrital contamination and U addition by secondary pore infillings. Our results show that the dense theca wall material of D. strigosa is generally less affected by post-depositional open-system behaviour and better suited for 230Th/U-dating than the bulk material. This is also obvious from the fact that all ages of theca wall material reflect a Last Interglacial origin (∼125 ka), whereas the bulk material samples are either substantially older or younger. However, for some corals, the 230Th/U-ages and activity ratios of the bulk material and the theca wall samples are similar. This shows that strictly reliable 230Th/U-ages can also be obtained from bulk material samples of exceptionally well-preserved corals. However, the bulk material samples more frequently show elevated activity ratios and ages than the corresponding theca wall samples. Our findings should be generally applicable to brain corals (Mussidae) that are found in tropical oceans worldwide and may enable reliable 230Th/U-dating of fossil corals with similar skeletal architecture, even if their bulk skeleton is altered by diagenesis. The 230Th/U-ages we consider reliable (120–130 ka), along with a recently published age of 118 ka, provide the first comprehensive dating of the elevated lower reef terrace at Bonaire (118–130 ka), which is in agreement in timing and duration with other Last Interglacial records.