The influence of vegetation-atmosphere-ocean interaction on climate during the mid-holocene

Simulations with a synchronously coupled atmosphere-ocean-vegetation model show that changes in vegetation cover during the mid-Holocene, some 6000 years ago, modify and amplify the climate system response to an enhanced seasonal cycle of solar insolation in the Northern Hemisphere both directly (primarily through the changes in surface albedo) and indirectly (through changes in oceanic temperature, sea-ice cover, and oceanic circulation). The model results indicate strong synergistic effects of changes in vegetation cover, ocean temperature, and sea ice at boreal latitudes, but in the subtropics, the atmosphere-vegetation feedback is most important. Moreover, a reduction of the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic Ocean leads to a warming of the Southern Hemisphere.     

Local orbital forcing of antarctic climate change during the last interglacial

During the last interglacial, Antarctic climate changed before that of the Northern Hemisphere. Large local changes in precession forcing could have produced this pattern if there were a rectified response in sea ice cover. Results from a coupled sea ice-ocean general circulation model supported this hypothesis when it was tested for three intervals around the last interglacial. Such a mechanism may play an important role in contributing to phase offsets between Northern and Southern Hemisphere climate change for other time intervals.     

Warmth of the subpolar north atlantic ocean during northern hemisphere ice-sheet growth

Two 10,000-year periods of Northern Hemisphere continental ice-sheet growth stand out prominently within the last full interglacial-to-glacial cycle. During the first half of each rapid ice-growth phase, the subpolar North Atlantic from 40 degrees N to 60 degrees N maintained warm sea-surface temperatures comparable to those of today's ocean. The juxtaposition at latitudes 50 degrees N to 60 degrees N of an "interglacial" ocean along-side a "glacial" land mass, particularly along eastern North America, is regarded as an optimal configuration for delivering moisture to the growing ice sheets.     

Absence of cooling in New Zealand and the adjacent ocean during the Younger Dryas chronozone

As the climate warmed at the end of the last glacial period, a rapid reversal in temperature, the Younger Dryas (YD) event, briefly returned much of the North Atlantic region to near full-glacial conditions. The event was associated with climate reversals in many other areas of the Northern Hemisphere and also with warming over and near Antarctica. However, the expression of the YD in the mid- to low latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere (and the southwest Pacific region in particular) is much more controversial. Here we show that the Waiho Loop advance of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand was not a YD event, as previously thought, and that the adjacent ocean warmed throughout the YD.     

Rapid rise of sea level 19,000 years ago and its global implications

Evidence from the Irish Sea basin supports the existence of an abrupt rise in sea level (meltwater pulse) at 19,000 years before the present (B.P.). Climate records indicate a large reduction in the strength of North Atlantic Deep Water formation and attendant cooling of the North Atlantic at this time, indicating a source of the meltwater pulse from one or more Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Warming of the tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Southern Hemisphere also began at 19,000 years B.P. These responses identify mechanisms responsible for the propagation of deglacial climate signals to the Southern Hemisphere and tropics while maintaining a cold climate in the Northern Hemisphere.     

A simple predictive model for the structure of the oceanic pycnocline

A simple theory for the large-scale oceanic circulation is developed, relating pycnocline depth, Northern Hemisphere sinking, and low-latitude upwelling to pycnocline diffusivity and Southern Ocean winds and eddies. The results show that Southern Ocean processes help maintain the global ocean structure and that pycnocline diffusion controls low-latitude upwelling.     

A Cold Suboceanic Mantle Belt at the Earth's Equator

An exceptionally low degree of melting of the upper mantle in the equatorial part of the mid-Atlantic Ridge is indicated by the chemical composition of mantle-derived mid-ocean ridge peridotites and basalts. These data imply that mantle temperatures below the equatorial Atlantic are at least approximately 150 degrees C cooler than those below the normal mid-Atlantic Ridge, suggesting that isotherms are depressed and the mantle is downwelling in the equatorial Atlantic. An equatorial minimum of the zero-age crustal elevation of the East Pacific Rise suggests a similar situation in the Pacific. If so, an oceanic upper mantle cold equatorial belt separates hotter mantle regimes and perhaps distinct chemical and isotopic domains in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Gravity data suggest the presence of high density material in the oceanic equatorial upper mantle, which is consistent with its inferred low temperature and undepleted composition. The equatorial distribution of cold, dense upper mantle may be ultimately an effect of the Earth's rotation.     

Evolution of the eastern tropical Pacific through Plio-Pleistocene glaciation

A tropical Pacific climate state resembling that of a permanent El Ni?o is hypothesized to have ended as a result of a reorganization of the ocean heat budget approximately 3 million years ago, a time when large ice sheets appeared in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. We report a high-resolution alkenone reconstruction of conditions in the heart of the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) cold tongue that reflects the combined influences of changes in the equatorial thermocline, the properties of the thermocline's source waters, atmospheric greenhouse gas content, and orbital variations on sea surface temperature (SST) and biological productivity over the past 5 million years. Our data indicate that the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 3 million years ago did not interrupt an almost monotonic cooling of the EEP during the Plio-Pleistocene. SST and productivity in the eastern tropical Pacific varied in phase with global ice volume changes at a dominant 41,000-year (obliquity) frequency throughout this time. Changes in the Southern Hemisphere most likely modulated most of the changes observed.     

Recent Earth oblateness variations: unraveling climate and postglacial rebound effects

Earth's dynamic oblateness (J2) has been decreasing due to postglacial rebound (PGR). However, J2 began to increase in 1997, indicating a pronounced global-scale mass redistribution within Earth's system. We have determined that the observed increases in J2 are caused primarily by a recent surge in subpolar glacial melting and by mass shifts in the Southern, Pacific, and Indian oceans. When these effects are removed, the residual trend in J2 (-2.9 x 10(-11) year-1) becomes consistent with previous estimates of PGR from satellite and eclipse data. The climatic significance of these rapid shifts in glacial and oceanic mass, however, remains to be investigated.     

Glacial to Interglacial Fluctuations in Productivity in the Equatorial Pacific as Indicated by Marine Barite

An empirical correlation between marine barite (BaSO4) accumulation rate in core-top sediment samples from two equatorial Pacific transects (at 140°W and 110°W) and the estimated primary productivity of the overlying water column were used to evaluate glacial to interglacial changes in productivity. Fluctuations in barite accumulation rates down-core indicate that during glacial periods of the past 450,000 years, the productivity in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific was about two times that during intervening interglacial periods. This result is consistent with other evidence that productivity was high in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific during the last glacial.     

PALEOCLIMATE: Glacial Climate Instability

Throughout the last glacial period, rapid climatic changes called Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. As Labeyrie discusses in his Perspective, these events are ideal targets for testing our understanding of climate change and developing climatic change models. Important steps toward understanding D-O events, particularly regarding the role of the low latitudes, are now reported by Hughen et al. and Peterson et al.     

PALEOCLIMATE: The Younger Dryas: Cold, Cold Everywhere?

The transition from the last ice age to the current warm period was interupted by a ~1000-year return to glacial conditions. Most of the evidence for this Younger Dryas (YD) event comes from in and around the North Atlantic, and the geographical extent of the event remains uncertain. In his Perspective, Rodbell reviews the evidence for and against a YD event in the Southern Hemisphere and highlights the study by Bennett et al., who have found no evidence for a YD event in four lake records from southern Chile.     

The surface of the ice-age Earth

In the Northern Hemisphere the 18,000 B.P. world differed strikingly from the present in the huge land-based ice sheets, reaching approximately 3 km in thickness, and in a dramatic increase in the extent of pack ice and marine-based ice sheets. In the Southern Hemisphere the most striking contrast was the greater extent of sea ice. On land, grasslands, steppes, and deserts spread at the expense of forests. This change in vegetation, together with extensive areas of permanent ice and sandy outwash plains, caused an increase in global surface albedo over modern values. Sea level was lower by at least 85 m. The 18,000 B.P. oceans were characterized by: (i) marked steepening of thermal gradients along polar frontal systems, particularly in the North Atlantic and Antarctic; (ii) an equatorward displacement of polar frontal systems; (iii) general cooling of most surface waters, with a global average of -2.3 degrees C; (iv) increased cooling and up-welling along equatorial divergences in the Pacific and Atlantic; (v) low temperatures extending equatorward along the western coast of Africa, Australia, and South America, indicating increased upwelling and advection of cool waters; and (vi) nearly stable positions and temperatures of the central gyres in the subtropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.     

Instability of glacial climate in a model of the ocean- atmosphere-cryosphere system

In contrast to the relatively stable climate of the past 10,000 years, during glacial times the North Atlantic region experienced large-amplitude transitions between cold (stadial) and warm (interstadial) states. In this modeling study, we demonstrate that hydrological interactions between the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) and adjacent continental ice sheets can trigger abrupt warming events and also limit the lifetime of the interstadial circulation mode. These interactions have the potential to destabilize the THC, which is already more sensitive for glacial conditions than for the present-day climate, thus providing an explanation for the increased variability of glacial climate.     

Atmospheric CO2 and climate on millennial time scales during the last glacial period

Reconstructions of ancient atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) variations help us better understand how the global carbon cycle and climate are linked. We compared CO2 variations on millennial time scales between 20,000 and 90,000 years ago with an Antarctic temperature proxy and records of abrupt climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. CO2 concentration and Antarctic temperature were positively correlated over millennial-scale climate cycles, implying a strong connection to Southern Ocean processes. Evidence from marine sediment proxies indicates that CO2 concentration rose most rapidly when North Atlantic Deep Water shoaled and stratification in the Southern Ocean was reduced. These increases in CO2 concentration occurred during stadial (cold) periods in the Northern Hemisphere, several thousand years before abrupt warming events in Greenland.     

Southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone through the Holocene

Titanium and iron concentration data from the anoxic Cariaco Basin, off the Venezuelan coast, can be used to infer variations in the hydrological cycle over northern South America during the past 14,000 years with subdecadal resolution. Following a dry Younger Dryas, a period of increased precipitation and riverine discharge occurred during the Holocene "thermal maximum." Since approximately 5400 years ago, a trend toward drier conditions is evident from the data, with high-amplitude fluctuations and precipitation minima during the time interval 3800 to 2800 years ago and during the "Little Ice Age." These regional changes in precipitation are best explained by shifts in the mean latitude of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), potentially driven by Pacific-based climate variability. The Cariaco Basin record exhibits strong correlations with climate records from distant regions, including the high-latitude Northern Hemisphere, providing evidence for global teleconnections among regional climates.     

Synchronous climate changes in antarctica and the north atlantic

Central Greenland ice cores provide evidence of abrupt changes in climate over the past 100,000 years. Many of these changes have also been identified in sedimentary and geochemical signatures in deep-sea sediment cores from the North Atlantic, confirming the link between millennial-scale climate variability and ocean thermohaline circulation. It is shown here that two of the most prominent North Atlantic events-the rapid warming that marks the end of the last glacial period and the Bolling/Allerod-Younger Dryas oscillation-are also recorded in an ice core from Taylor Dome, in the western Ross Sea sector of Antarctica. This result contrasts with evidence from ice cores in other regions of Antarctica, which show an asynchronous response between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.     

Glacial-interglacial Indian summer monsoon dynamics

The modern Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is characterized by exceptionally strong interhemispheric transport, indicating the importance of both Northern and Southern Hemisphere processes driving monsoon variability. Here, we present a high-resolution continental record from southwestern China that demonstrates the importance of interhemispheric forcing in driving ISM variability at the glacial-interglacial time scale as well. Interglacial ISM maxima are dominated by an enhanced Indian low associated with global ice volume minima. In contrast, the glacial ISM reaches a minimum, and actually begins to increase, before global ice volume reaches a maximum. We attribute this early strengthening to an increased cross-equatorial pressure gradient derived from Southern Hemisphere high-latitude cooling. This mechanism explains much of the nonorbital scale variance in the Pleistocene ISM record.     

Early warming of tropical South America at the last glacial-interglacial transition

Glaciation in the humid tropical Andes is a sensitive indicator of mean annual temperature. Here, we present sedimentological data from lakes beyond the glacial limit in the tropical Andes indicating that deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum led substantial warming at high northern latitudes. Deglaciation from glacial maximum positions at Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia (16 degrees S), and Lake Junin, Peru (11 degrees S), occurred 22,000 to 19,500 calendar years before the present, several thousand years before the B?lling-Aller?d warming of the Northern Hemisphere and deglaciation of the Sierra Nevada, United States (36.5 degrees to 38 degrees N). The tropical Andes deglaciated while climatic conditions remained regionally wet, which reflects the dominant control of mean annual temperature on tropical glaciation.     

Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages

1) Three indices of global climate have been monitored in the record of the past 450,000 years in Southern Hemisphere ocean-floor sediments. 2) Over the frequency range 10(-4) to 10(-5) cycle per year, climatic variance of these records is concentrated in three discrete spectral peaks at periods of 23,000, 42,000, and approximately 100,000 years. These peaks correspond to the dominant periods of the earth's solar orbit, and contain respectively about 10, 25, and 50 percent of the climatic variance. 3) The 42,000-year climatic component has the same period as variations in the obliquity of the earth's axis and retains a constant phase relationship with it. 4) The 23,000-year portion of the variance displays the same periods (about 23,000 and 19,000 years) as the quasi-periodic precession index. 5) The dominant, 100,000-year climatic [See table in the PDF file] component has an average period close to, and is in phase with, orbital eccentricity. Unlike the correlations between climate and the higher-frequency orbital variations (which can be explained on the assumption that the climate system responds linearly to orbital forcing), an explanation of the correlation between climate and eccentricity probably requires an assumption of nonlinearity. 6) It is concluded that changes in the earth's orbital geometry are the fundamental cause of the succession of Quaternary ice ages. 7) A model of future climate based on the observed orbital-climate relationships, but ignoring anthropogenic effects, predicts that the long-term trend over the next sevem thousand years is toward extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation.