Yukon River incision drove organic carbon burial in the Bering Sea during global climate changes at 2.6 and 1 Ma

Abstract. River erosion affects the carbon cycle and thus climate by exporting terrigenous to seafloor sediment nourishing CO2-consuming marine life. The Yukon River–Bering Sea system preserves rare source-to-sink records of these processes across profound changes in global during past 5 million years (Ma). Here, we expand terrestrial record dating terraces along Charley River, Alaska, explore linkages among previously published tributary incision chronologies Bering sedimentation. Cosmogenic 26Al/10Be isochron burial ages match documented central from 2.6 1.6 Ma Pliocene–Pleistocene glacial expansion, at 1.1 1.2–0.7 Middle Pleistocene transition. sediments preserve 2–4-fold rate increases River-derived continental detritus, organic carbon, silicate microfossil deposition 2.6–2.1 1.1–0.8 Ma. These tightly coupled demonstrate elevated nutrient export concomitant productivity response climate-forced incision. Carbon related accelerated may contribute CO2 drawdown transitions observed many proxy worldwide.