Sequence of events from the onset to the demise of the Last Interglacial: Evaluating strengths and limitations of chronologies used in climatic archives

Type Article
Date 2015-12
Language English
Author(s) Govin A.1, Capron E.2, Tzedakis P. C.3, Verheyden S.4, Ghaleb B.5, Hillaire-Marcel C.5, St-Onge G.6, 7, Stoner J. S.8, Bassinot F.9, Bazin L.9, Blunier T.10, Combourieu-Nebout N.11, El Ouahabi A.12, Genty D.9, Gersonde R.13, Jimenez-Amat P.14, 15, Landais A.9, Martrat B.12, Masson-Delmotte V.9, Parrenin F.16, Seidenkrantz M. -S.17, Veres D.16, Waelbroeck C.9, Zahn R.18, 19
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Bremen, MARUM Ctr Marine Environm Sci, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.
2 : British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, England.
3 : UCL, Dept Geog, Environm Change Res Ctr, London WC1E 6BT, England.
4 : Royal Belgian Inst Nat Sci, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.
5 : Univ Quebec, Geotop, Montreal, PQ H3C 3P8, Canada.
6 : Univ Quebec, Canada Res Chair Marine Geol, Inst Sci Mer Rimouski ISMER, Rimouski, PQ G5L 3A1, Canada.
7 : GEOTOP Res Ctr, Montreal, PQ, Canada.
8 : Oregon State Univ, Coll Earth Ocean & Atmospher Sci, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA.
9 : Inst Pierre Simon Laplace, Lab Sci Climat & Environm, CEA CNRS UVSQ, UMR 8212, F-91190 Gif Sur Yvette, France.
10 : Univ Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Inst, Ctr Ice & Climate, DK-1168 Copenhagen, Denmark.
11 : Museum Natl Hist Nat, Inst Paleontol Humaine, Dept Prehist, UMR 7194,CNRS Hist Nat Homme Prehist, F-75013 Paris, France.
12 : Spanish Council Sci Res CSIC, Dept Environm Chem, Inst Environm Assessment & Water Res IDAEA, Barcelona 08034, Spain.
13 : Helmholtz Ctr Polar & Marine Res, Alfred Wegener Inst, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany.
14 : Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Inst Environm Sci & Technol, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
15 : Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Dept Geog, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
16 : CNRS, UJF, Lab Glaciol & Geophys Environm, F-38402 St Martin Dheres, France.
17 : Aarhus Univ, Dept Geosci, Ctr Climate Studies, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
18 : Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Inst Catalana Recerca & Estudis Avancats ICREA, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
19 : Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Dept Fis, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol Ambientals ICTA, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
Source Quaternary Science Reviews (0277-3791) (Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd), 2015-12 , Vol. 129 , P. 1-36
DOI 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.09.018
WOS© Times Cited 118
Keyword(s) Last Interglacial, Penultimate deglaciation, Last glacial inception, Chronology, Corals, Speleothems, Ice cores, Marine sediments, Peat and lake sediments, Climate dynamics
Abstract

The Last Interglacial (LIG) represents an invaluable case study to investigate the response of components of the Earth system to global warming. However, the scarcity of absolute age constraints in most archives leads to extensive use of various stratigraphic alignments to different reference chronologies. This feature sets limitations to the accuracy of the stratigraphic assignment of the climatic sequence of events across the globe during the LIG. Here, we review the strengths and limitations of the methods that are commonly used to date or develop chronologies in various climatic archives for the time span (similar to 140 -100 ka) encompassing the penultimate deglaciation, the LIG and the glacial inception. Climatic hypotheses underlying record alignment strategies and the interpretation of tracers are explicitly described. Quantitative estimates of the associated absolute and relative age uncertainties are provided. Recommendations are subsequently formulated on how best to define absolute and relative chronologies. Future climato-stratigraphic alignments should provide (1) a clear statement of climate hypotheses involved, (2) a detailed understanding of environmental parameters controlling selected tracers and (3) a careful evaluation of the synchronicity of aligned paleoclimatic records. We underscore the need to (1) systematically report quantitative estimates of relative and absolute age uncertainties, (2) assess the coherence of chronologies when comparing different records, and (3) integrate these uncertainties in paleoclimatic interpretations and comparisons with climate simulations. Finally, we provide a sequence of major climatic events with associated age uncertainties for the period 140-105 ka, which should serve as a new benchmark to disentangle mechanisms of the Earth system's response to orbital forcing and evaluate transient climate simulations.

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Govin A., Capron E., Tzedakis P. C., Verheyden S., Ghaleb B., Hillaire-Marcel C., St-Onge G., Stoner J. S., Bassinot F., Bazin L., Blunier T., Combourieu-Nebout N., El Ouahabi A., Genty D., Gersonde R., Jimenez-Amat P., Landais A., Martrat B., Masson-Delmotte V., Parrenin F., Seidenkrantz M. -S., Veres D., Waelbroeck C., Zahn R. (2015). Sequence of events from the onset to the demise of the Last Interglacial: Evaluating strengths and limitations of chronologies used in climatic archives. Quaternary Science Reviews, 129, 1-36. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.09.018 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00496/60802/