Deglacial export of pre-aged terrigenous carbon to the Bay of Biscay

The last deglaciation is the most recent relatively well-documented period of pronounced and fast climate warming and, as such, it holds important information for our understanding of the climate system. Notably, while research into terrestrial organic carbon reservoirs has been instrumental in exploring the possible sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide during periods of rapid change, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Here we investigate the mobilization of organic matter to the Bay of Biscay at the mouth of the Channel River, where an enhanced terrigenous input has been reported for the last glacial-interglacial transition. A suite of biomarker and isotopic analyses on a high-resolution sedimentary archive provided the first direct evidence for the fluvial supply of immature and ancient terrestrial organic matter to the core location. In the light of what has been reported for other regions with present or past permafrost conditions on land, this result points to the possibility of permafrost carbon export to the ocean, caused by processes that likely furthered the observed changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide.