Long-term sea surface temperature and climate change in the Australian-New Zealand region

Type Article
Date 2007-05
Language English
Author(s) Barrows Timothy T.1, Juggins Steve2, de Deckker Patrick3, Calvo Eva4, Pelejero Carles5
Affiliation(s) 1 : Australian Natl Univ, Dept Nucl Phys, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
2 : Univ Newcastle, Sch Geog Polit & Sociol, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, England.
3 : Australian Natl Univ, Dept Earth & Marine Sci, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
4 : CSIC, Inst Ciencias Mar, CMIMA, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.
5 : CSIC, CMIMA, Inst Catalana Rec & Estudis Avancats, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Source Paleoceanography (0883-8305) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2007-05 , Vol. 22 , N. 2/PA2215 , P. 1-17
DOI 10.1029/2006PA001328
WOS© Times Cited 145
Keyword(s) sea surface temperature, climate change, Australia–New Zealand
Abstract We compile and compare data for the last 150,000 years from four deep-sea cores in the midlatitude zone of the Southern Hemisphere. We recalculate sea surface temperature estimates derived from foraminifera and compare these with estimates derived from alkenones and magnesium/calcium ratios in foraminiferal carbonate and with accompanying sedimentological and pollen records on a common absolute timescale. Using a stack of the highest-resolution records, we find that first-order climate change occurs in concert with changes in insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. Glacier extent and inferred vegetation changes in Australia and New Zealand vary in tandem with sea surface temperatures, signifying close links between oceanic and terrestrial temperature. In the Southern Ocean, rapid temperature change of the order of 6 degrees C occurs within a few centuries and appears to have played an important role in midlatitude climate change. Sea surface temperature changes over longer periods closely match proxy temperature records from Antarctic ice cores. Warm events correlate with Antarctic events A1-A4 and appear to occur just before Dansgaard-Oeschger events 8, 12, 14, and 17 in Greenland.
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