0000000001319733
AUTHOR
Gerrit Lohmann
Porites corals from Crete (Greece) open a window into Late Miocene (10Ma) seasonal and interannual climate variability
Variations in the biotic composition of marine shallow water carbonates document global climatic changes. However, a discontinuous stratigraphic record and uncertainties regarding the ages limit the significance of shallow water carbonates as palaeoclimatic archives on geological time-scales. Notwithstanding these deficits, the environmental information stored in the skeleton of reef biota is a unique source of information that resolves seasonal to interannual climate variability in geological time. Application of the method to corals from carbonate rocks is usually restricted to the past 130,000yr, because the aragonite skeleton undergoes rapid diagenetic alteration. Consequently, reconstr…
Global aridity synthesis for the last 60 000 years
Abstract. A compilation of published literature on the dust content in terrestrial and marine sediment cores are synchronised on the basis of pollen data and speleothem growth phases within GICC05 age constrain. Based on that, aridity patterns for ten key areas in the global climate system are reconstructed over the past 60 000 years. These records have different time resolutions and rely on different dating methods, thus of various types of stratigraphy. Nevertheless, all regions show humid conditions during the early MIS3 and early Holocene, but not always of the same timing. Such discrepancies have been interpreted as regional effects while also due to stratigraphical uncertainties. In c…
Last Interglacial Hydroclimate Seasonality Reconstructed From Tropical Atlantic Corals
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 surf…
Tropical Atlantic temperature seasonality at the end of the last interglacial
The end of the last interglacial period, ~118 kyr ago, was characterized by substantial ocean circulation and climate perturbations resulting from instabilities of polar ice sheets. These perturbations are crucial for a better understanding of future climate change. The seasonal temperature changes of the tropical ocean, however, which play an important role in seasonal climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods and droughts at the present day, are not well known for this period that led into the last glacial. Here we present a monthly resolved snapshot of reconstructed sea surface temperature in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean for 117.7±0.8 kyr ago, using coral Sr/Ca and δ18O records. W…
Last interglacial temperature seasonality reconstructed from tropical Atlantic corals
Abstract 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 …
Response of Central European SST to atmospheric pCO2 forcing during the Oligocene – A combined proxy data and numerical climate model approach
CO2-induced global warming will affect seasonal to decadal temperature patterns. Expected changes will be particularly strong in extratropical regions where temperatures will increase at faster rates than at lower latitudes. Despite that, it is still poorly constrained how precisely short-term climate dynamics will change in a generally warmer world, particularly in nearshore surface waters in the extratropics, i.e., the ecologically most productive regions of the ocean on which many human societies depend. Specifically, a detailed knowledge of the relationship between pCO2 and seasonal SST is crucial to understand interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere. In the present investigat…
Simulated European stalagmite record and its relation to a quasi-decadal climate mode
Abstract. A synthetic stalagmite record for the Bunker cave is constructed using a combined climate-stalagmite modeling approach. The power spectrum of the simulated speleothem calcite δ18O record has a pronounced peak at quasi-decadal time scale. Interestingly, mixing processes in the soil and karst above the cave represent a natural low-pass filter of the speleothem climate archive. We identify a quasi-decadal mode characterized by a "tripole pattern" of sea surface temperature affecting stalagmite δ18O values. This pattern, which is well-known in literature as the quasi-decadal mode in the North Atlantic, propagates eastwards and affects western European temperature surrounding the cave.…
Inter-annual climate variability in Europe during the Oligocene icehouse
Abstract New sclerochronological data suggest that a variability comparable to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was already present during the middle Oligocene, about 20 Myr earlier than formerly assumed. Annual increment width data of long-lived marine bivalves of Oligocene (30–25 Ma) strata from Central Europe revealed a distinct quasi-decadal climate variability modulated on 2–12 (mainly 3–7) year cycles. As in many other modern bivalves, these periodic changes in shell growth were most likely related to changes in primary productivity, which in turn, were coupled to atmospheric circulation patterns. Stable carbon isotope values of the shells (δ 13 C shell ) further corroborated the …
Control of Seasonality and Interannual to Centennial Climate Variability in the Caribbean During the Holocene—Combining Coral Records, Stalagmite Records and Climate Models
This study aimed at quantifying the amplitudes of seasonality and interannual to centennial climate variability in the Caribbean region throughout the Holocene, by using marine (shallow-water corals) and terrestrial (speleothems) climate archives, and climate model simulations (COSMOS). Sea-surface temperature (SST) variability on interdecadal to multidecadal timescales was more pronounced during the mid-Holocene compared to the late Holocene. The amplitude of the SST annual cycle was within the present-day range throughout most of the last 6,000 years. Exceptions include slightly increased SST seasonality at 6,200 years ago, which can be attributed mainly to insolation forcing on orbital t…
Reorganization of the North Atlantic Oscillation during early Holocene deglaciation
Laurentide ice-sheet retreat continued into the mid-Holocene. Speleothem-based precipitation records suggest the cessation of melt led to the establishment of the present precipitation patterns associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The North Atlantic Oscillation is the dominant atmospheric pressure mode in the North Atlantic region and affects winter temperature and precipitation in the Mediterranean, northwest Europe, Greenland, and Asia1. The index1 that describes the sea-level pressure difference between Iceland and the Azores is correlated with a dipole precipitation pattern over northwest Europe and northwest Africa. How the North Atlantic Oscillation will develop as the Gree…
Climate signatures on decadal to interdecadal time scales as obtained from mollusk shells (Arctica islandica) from Iceland
Abstract Pronounced decadal climate oscillations are detected in a multi-centennial record based on shell growth rates of the marine bivalve mollusk, Arctica islandica, from Iceland. The corresponding analysis of patterns in sea level pressure and temperature exhibit large-scale teleconnections with North Atlantic climate quantities. We find that the record projects onto blocking situations in the northern North Atlantic. The associated circulation shows a low-pressure signature over Greenland and the Labrador Sea and a high-pressure system over Western Europe associated with northeasterly flow towards Iceland and weakening in the westerly zonal flow over Europe. It can be speculated that s…
Monthly Bonaire coral Sr/Ca and oxygen isotope data from 118 kyr ago (coral BON-5-D)
The end of the last interglacial period, ~118 kyr ago, was characterized by substantial ocean circulation and climate perturbations resulting from instabilities of polar ice sheets. These perturbations are crucial for a better understanding of future climate change. The seasonal temperature changes of the tropical ocean, however, which play an important role in seasonal climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods and droughts at the present day, are not well known for this period that led into the last glacial. Here we present a monthly resolved snapshot of reconstructed sea surface temperature in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean for 117.7±0.8 kyr ago, using coral Sr/Ca and d18O records. W…
Growth increment width measurement and SGIshell data, and COSMOS model simulations
New sclerochronological data suggest that a variability comparable to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was already present during the middle Oligocene, about 20 Myr earlier than formerly assumed. Annual increment width data of long-lived marine bivalves of Oligocene (30-25 Ma) strata from Central Europe revealed a distinct quasi-decadal climate variability modulated on 2-12 (mainly 3-7) year cycles. As in many other modern bivalves, these periodic changes in shell growth were most likely related to changes in primary productivity, which in turn, were coupled to atmospheric circulation patterns. Stable carbon isotope values of the shells (d13Cshell) further corroborated the link between …