A 0.55-Ma paleotemperature record from the Subantarctic zone: Implications for Antarctic Circumpolar Current development

Type Article
Date 2003-03
Language English
Author(s) Becquey S1, Gersonde R1
Affiliation(s) 1 : Alfred Wegener Inst Polar & Marine Res, D-27515 Bremerhaven, Germany.
Source Paleoceanography (0883-8305) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2003-03 , Vol. 18 , N. 1 , P. 14.1-14.14
DOI 10.1029/2000PA000576
WOS© Times Cited 61
Keyword(s) Subantarctic zone, sea surface temperatures, planktic foraminifers, ice rafted debris, climate
Abstract Estimates of summer sea surface temperatures (SSSTs) derived from planktic foraminiferal associations using the Modern Analog Technique and combined with isotopic analyses and determination of ice-rafted debris, mirror the Pleistocene evolution of the planktic Subantarctic surface waters in the Atlantic Ocean. The SSSTs indicate that the isotherms that define the modern polar front zone and Subantarctic front, were located at more northerly latitudes (up to 7degrees) during most of the investigated period, which covers the past 550 kyr. Exceptions are during climatic optima in the early Holocene, at marine isotope stages (MIS) 5.5, 7.1, 7.5, 9.3, and presumably during MIS 11.3 when SSSTs exceeded modern values by 1degrees-5degreesC. The close similarity between the SSST and the Vostok temperature indicates strong regional temperature correlation. Both records show that MIS 9.3 was the warmest period during the last 420 kyr whereas SSSTs obtained for MIS 11.3 are overestimated due to strong carbonate dissolution. Spectral analysis corroborates that the initiation of warming in southern high latitudes heralds the start of deglaciation on the Northern Hemisphere.
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