N2 fixation variability in the oligotrophic Sulu Sea, western equatorial Pacific region over the past 83 kyr

N2 fixation is an important biological process that adds new nitrogen to oceans and plays a key role in modulating the oceanic nitrate inventory. However, it is not known how, when, and where N2 fixation rates have varied in response to past climate changes. This study presents a new record of nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15N) over the last 83 kyr from a sediment core (KH02-4 SUP8) taken in the Sulu Sea in the western equatorial Pacific region; data allow the N2 fixation variability in the sea to be reconstructed. Sediments, sinking, and suspended particulate organic matter (POM) all have lighter isotopic values compared to the δ15N values of substrate nitrate (av. 5.8‰) in North Pacific Intermediate Water. These lighter δ15N values are regarded as reflecting N2 fixation in the Sulu Sea surface water. A δ15N mass balance model shows that N2 fixation rates were significantly enhanced during 54–34 kyr in MIS-3 and MIS-2. It has been speculated that higher interglacial denitrification rates in the Arabian Sea and the eastern tropical Pacific would have markedly decreased the global oceanic N inventory and contributed to the increase in N2 fixation in oligotrophic regions, but such a model was not revealed by our study. It is possible that changes in N2 fixation rates in the Sulu Sea were regional response, and accumulation of phosphate in the surface waters due to enhanced monsoon-driven mixing is thought to have stimulated enhancements of N2 fixation during MIS-3 and MIS-2.