scholarly journals Central Europe temperature constrained by speleothem fluid inclusion water isotopes over the past 14,000 years

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaav3809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Affolter ◽  
Anamaria Häuselmann ◽  
Dominik Fleitmann ◽  
R. Lawrence Edwards ◽  
Hai Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Inclusion ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Water Isotopes ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Thermal Maximum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Precipitation Records

The reasons for the early Holocene temperature discrepancy between northern hemispheric model simulations and paleoclimate reconstructions—known as the Holocene temperature conundrum—remain unclear. Using hydrogen isotopes of fluid inclusion water extracted from stalagmites from the Milandre Cave in Switzerland, we established a mid-latitude European mean annual temperature reconstruction for the past 14,000 years. Our Milandre Cave fluid inclusion temperature record (MC-FIT) resembles Greenland and Mediterranean sea surface temperature trends but differs from recent reconstructions obtained from biogenic proxies and climate models. The water isotopes are further synchronized with tropical precipitation records, stressing the Northern Hemisphere signature. Our results support the existence of a European Holocene Thermal Maximum and data-model temperature discrepancies. Moreover, data-data comparison reveals a significant latitudinal temperature gradient within Europe. Last, the MC-FIT record suggests that seasonal biases in the proxies are not the primary cause of the Holocene temperature conundrum.

Northern Spain temperature constrained by fluid inclusion water isotopes in speleothems during the abrupt oscillations of the last deglaciation period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Luis Bernal Wormull ◽  
Ana Moreno Caballud ◽  
Yuri Dubliansky ◽  
Christoph Spötl ◽  
Carlos Pérez-Mejías ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Inclusion ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Water Isotopes ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Last Deglaciation ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
The Last Deglaciation ◽  
Western Pyrenees

<p>The last deglaciation (from ≈19 kyr BP to the onset of the Holocene) is a time interval characterized by major and abrupt climate changes mostly caused by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which is responsible for redistributing heat on a planetary scale, including the Iberian Peninsula. This study is focused in the Western Pyrenees, northern Spain, a southern European region key to understand Northern Hemisphere climate teleconnections associated to several warming and cooling events that took place abruptly. It is especially important to know when precisely these events occurred and what their amplitude was to better understand their causes and impacts on the regional environment.</p><p>The climatic events mentioned above are recorded in lake and marine sediments in the central and southern Europe denoting the importance of these records in the transitional zone between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean climatic realms. The glacial-interglacial transition was also identified in isotopic values of speleothems at this latitude, where differences and similarities with the patterns identified in the Greenland record during the last deglaciation are analysed. Even so, there is still no continental record of temperature reconstruction during part of the last deglaciation in the Iberian Peninsula that can be compared with the latest record of fluid inclusions in speleothems in central Europe (Affolter et al., 2019).</p><p>In this new study, three stalagmites from Ostolo Cave in the Western Pyrenees were analysed to identify and characterize the timing of the climate variability along the abrupt changes that punctuated the last deglaciation and subsequently generate a reconstruction of the past temperature with the help of fluid inclusion water isotopes. The samples were dated at high precision and cover almost continuously the same period (16.5-10 kyr BP) with a high degree of replication. The speleothem δ<sup>18</sup>O and fluid inclusion water isotopes (δD) records follow closely the well-known changes from high latitudes showing more negative values during GS-1 and H1, related to colder climates, while more positive values were reached during GI-1 and the Early Holocene, pointing towards warmer temperatures. Our Ostolo Cave fluid inclusion temperature record resembles Greenland and Mediterranean sea surface temperature trends and allows for the first time and from a continental record, a continuous reconstruction of temperature throughout the last deglaciation in southern Europe.</p>

scholarly journals An introduction to stable water isotopes in climate models: benefits of forward proxy modelling for paleoclimatology

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Sturm ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
D. Noone
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Isotopic Fractionation ◽  
Water Isotopes ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Stable Water Isotopes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Precipitation Seasonality ◽  
Isotopic Signal

Abstract. Stable water isotopes have been measured in a wide range of climate archives, with the purpose of reconstructing regional climate variations. Yet the common assumption that the isotopic signal is a direct indicator of temperature proves to be misleading under certain circumstances, since its relationship with temperature also depends on e.g. atmospheric circulation and precipitation seasonality. Here we introduce the principles, benefits and caveats of using climate models with embedded water isotopes as a support for the interpretation of isotopic climate archives. A short overview of the limitations of empirical calibrations of isotopic proxy records is presented. In some cases, the underlying hypotheses are not fulfilled and the calibration contradicts the physical interpretation of isotopic fractionation. The simulation of climate and its associated isotopic signal, despite difficulties related to downscaling and intrinsic atmospheric variability, can provide a "transfer function" between the isotopic signal and the considered climate variable. The relationship between modelled temperature and isotopic signal is analysed under present-day, pre-industrial and mid-Holocene conditions. The linear regression relationship is statistically more significant for precipitation-weighted annual temperature than mean annual temperature, yet the regression slope varies greatly between the time-slice experiments. Temperature reconstructions that do not account for the slope variations will in this case underestimate the low-frequency variability and overestimate high-frequency variability from the isotopic proxy record. The spatial variability of the simulated δ18O-temperature slope further indicates that the isotopic signal is primarily controlled by synoptic atmospheric circulation rather than local temperature.

scholarly journals Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO<sub>2</sub> record over the past 20 million years

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1459-1469 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. W. van de Wal ◽  
B. de Boer ◽  
L. J. Lourens ◽  
P. Köhler ◽  
R. Bintanja
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Absorption Bands ◽  
The Past

Abstract. The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and, in particular, the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO2, beyond the ice-core record prohibit, however, a full understanding of, for example, the inception of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation and mid-Pleistocene transition. Here we elaborate on an inverse modelling technique to reconstruct a continuous CO2 series over the past 20 million year (Myr), by decomposing the global deep-sea benthic δ18O record into a mutually consistent temperature and sea level record, using a set of 1-D models of the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets. We subsequently compared the modelled temperature record with ice core and proxy-derived CO2 data to create a continuous CO2 reconstruction over the past 20 Myr. Results show a gradual decline from 450 ppmv around 15 Myr ago to 225 ppmv for mean conditions of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last 1 Myr, coinciding with a gradual cooling of the global surface temperature of 10 K. Between 13 to 3 Myr ago there is no long-term sea level variation caused by ice-volume changes. We find no evidence of change in the long-term relation between temperature change and CO2, other than the effect following the saturation of the absorption bands for CO2. The reconstructed CO2 record shows that the Northern Hemisphere glaciation starts once the long-term average CO2 concentration drops below 265 ppmv after a period of strong decrease in CO2. Finally, only a small long-term decline of 23 ppmv is found during the mid-Pleistocene transition, constraining theories on this major transition in the climate system. The approach is not accurate enough to revise current ideas about climate sensitivity.

scholarly journals Glacier change in northern Sweden from AD 500: a simple geometric model of Storglaciären

1996 ◽  
Vol 42 (141) ◽  
pp. 341-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. В. Raper ◽  
K. R. Briffa ◽  
Т. M. L. Wigley
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Geometric Model ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
The Past ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Reconstructed Volume

AbstractA simple geometric model of glacier volume is derived. The model is based on the assumption that the net mass balance averaged over the glacier surface is related to the summer temperature and winter accumulation at a representative height on the glacier. This height varies with time as climate changes, in ways that are determined by the geometry of the glacier surface. Expressions are derived for the equilibrium glacier volume (Veq) as a function of summer temperature and winter accumulation and for the glacier-response time (τ) as a function of volume.The model is used to reconstruct the volume of Storglaciären over the period AD 500–1992. Measured net mass-balance data for Storglaciren (1946–92) are used to estimate the model parameters. For the summer temperature forcing, the long tree-ring-based temperature reconstruction for northern Fennoscandia is used to extend a temperature record near the glacier back to AD 500. For the past accumulation forcing, a range of assumptions is tested.The results show that the prime cause of the decrease in volume of Storglaciären between 1946 and 1992 was relatively low accumulation over 1946–89 as opposed to warm temperatures as previously supposed. Reconstructed volume changes agree well with geomorphological evidence. Where differences occur, deductions can be made about past accumulation. For example, the maximum reconstructed glacier volume is associated with the cold period from 1580 to 1740 but relatively low accumulation probably limited the volume to values not much larger than that achieved around 1916.

Vegetation and environment changes inferred from pollen records since 3000 cal. yr BP in Kanas wetland, Xinjiang

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 907-916
Author(s):  
Yumei Li ◽  
Yun Zhang ◽  
Zhaochen Kong ◽  
Long Zhao ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Quantitative Relationship ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
The Past ◽  
North Xinjiang ◽  
Pollen Records

Abstract Aims Climate change can significantly affect the vegetation worldwide. Thus, paleovegetation and paleoclimate reconstruction should consider the quantitative relationship between modern vegetation and climate. The specific objectives of this study were (i) to assess the influence of environmental variables on pollen assemblages in the Kanas region, (ii) to reconstruct the evolution of vegetation over the past 3000 years using pollen records and (iii) to quantify historical climate change (including mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation) using a weighted averaging partial least squares regression method (WAPLS) applied to fossil pollen data from the Kanas wetland in Xinjiang, China. Methods A total of 65 surface and 50 fossil samples were collected from the Kanas wetland and analysed for 14C, pollen and grain size. By combining these data with those obtained from 214 samples of surface pollen assemblages in north Xinjiang, the late Holocene climate was reconstructed using a WAPLS model. Important Findings The vegetation in Kanas was dominated by forest for the past 3000 years, undergoing an arbour-vegetation transition from predominantly pine to spruce over that period. The WAPLS model showed that the paleoclimate progressed from cold-wet to warm-dry and subsequently back to cold-wet. Prior to 1350 calibrated years before the present (cal. yr BP), the climate of Kanas was cold and wet, and conditions became increasingly warm and dry until 870 cal. yr BP. The temperature reconstruction model indicated that a ‘Little Ice Age’ occurred ~380 cal. yr BP. These data will help us improve the understanding of abrupt climate change and provide important information regarding the prediction of climate.

scholarly journals Continuous and self-consistent CO<sub>2</sub> and climate records over the past 20 Myrs

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 437-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. W. van de Wal ◽  
B. de Boer ◽  
L. Lourens ◽  
P. Köhler ◽  
R. Bintanja
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Absorption Bands ◽  
The Past

Abstract. The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and in particular the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO2, beyond the ice-core record prohibit however a full understanding of the inception of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation, as well as the mid-Pleistocene transition. Here we elaborate on an inverse modeling technique to reconstruct a continuous high-resolution CO2 record over the past 20 Ma, by decomposing the global deep-sea benthic δ18O record into a mutually consistent temperature and sea-level record, using a set of 1-D models of the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets. We subsequently compared the modeled temperature record to ice core and proxy-derived CO2 data to reconstruct a continuous CO2 record over the past 20 Myrs. Results show a gradual decline from 450 ppmv around 15 Myrs ago to 280 ppmv for pre-industrial conditions, coinciding with a gradual cooling of the Northern Hemisphere land temperatures by approximately 12 K, whereas there is no long-term sea-level variation caused by ice-volume changes between 13 to 3 Myrs ago. We find no evidence for a change in climate sensitivity other than the expected decrease following from saturation of the absorption bands for CO2. The reconstructed CO2 record shows that the Northern Hemisphere glaciation starts once the average CO2 concentration drops below 265 ppmv after a period of strong decrease in CO2. Finally it might be noted that we observe only a small long-term change (23 ppmv) for CO2 during the mid-Pleistocene transition.

scholarly journals High Arctic Holocene temperature record from the Agassiz ice cap and Greenland ice sheet evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (23) ◽  
pp. 5952-5957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit S. Lecavalier ◽  
David A. Fisher ◽  
Glenn A. Milne ◽  
Bo M. Vinther ◽  
Lev Tarasov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Temperature ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ice Cap

We present a revised and extended high Arctic air temperature reconstruction from a single proxy that spans the past ∼12,000 y (up to 2009 CE). Our reconstruction from the Agassiz ice cap (Ellesmere Island, Canada) indicates an earlier and warmer Holocene thermal maximum with early Holocene temperatures that are 4–5 °C warmer compared with a previous reconstruction, and regularly exceed contemporary values for a period of ∼3,000 y. Our results show that air temperatures in this region are now at their warmest in the past 6,800–7,800 y, and that the recent rate of temperature change is unprecedented over the entire Holocene. The warmer early Holocene inferred from the Agassiz ice core leads to an estimated ∼1 km of ice thinning in northwest Greenland during the early Holocene using the Camp Century ice core. Ice modeling results show that this large thinning is consistent with our air temperature reconstruction. The modeling results also demonstrate the broader significance of the enhanced warming, with a retreat of the northern ice margin behind its present position in the mid Holocene and a ∼25% increase in total Greenland ice sheet mass loss (∼1.4 m sea-level equivalent) during the last deglaciation, both of which have implications for interpreting geodetic measurements of land uplift and gravity changes in northern Greenland.

scholarly journals Glacier change in northern Sweden from AD 500: a simple geometric model of Storglaciären

1996 ◽  
Vol 42 (141) ◽  
pp. 341-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. В. Raper ◽  
K. R. Briffa ◽  
Т. M. L. Wigley
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Geometric Model ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
Glacier Surface ◽  
The Past ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia ◽  
Reconstructed Volume

AbstractA simple geometric model of glacier volume is derived. The model is based on the assumption that the net mass balance averaged over the glacier surface is related to the summer temperature and winter accumulation at a representative height on the glacier. This height varies with time as climate changes, in ways that are determined by the geometry of the glacier surface. Expressions are derived for the equilibrium glacier volume (Veq) as a function of summer temperature and winter accumulation and for the glacier-response time (τ) as a function of volume.The model is used to reconstruct the volume of Storglaciären over the period AD 500–1992. Measured net mass-balance data for Storglaciren (1946–92) are used to estimate the model parameters. For the summer temperature forcing, the long tree-ring-based temperature reconstruction for northern Fennoscandia is used to extend a temperature record near the glacier back to AD 500. For the past accumulation forcing, a range of assumptions is tested.The results show that the prime cause of the decrease in volume of Storglaciären between 1946 and 1992 was relatively low accumulation over 1946–89 as opposed to warm temperatures as previously supposed. Reconstructed volume changes agree well with geomorphological evidence. Where differences occur, deductions can be made about past accumulation. For example, the maximum reconstructed glacier volume is associated with the cold period from 1580 to 1740 but relatively low accumulation probably limited the volume to values not much larger than that achieved around 1916.

scholarly journals Last nine-thousand years of temperature variability in Northern Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1521-1552 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Seppä ◽  
A. E. Bjune ◽  
R. J. Telford ◽  
H. J. B. Birks ◽  
S. Veski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Thermal Maximum ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
The North ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Future Global Warming

Abstract. The threat of future global warming has generated a major interest in quantifying past climate variability on centennial and millennial time-scales. However, palaeoclimatological records are often noisy and arguments about past variability are only possible if they are based on reproducible features in several reliably dated datasets. Here we focus on the last 9000 years, explore the results of 35 Holocene pollen-based July mean and annual mean temperature reconstructions from Northern Europe by stacking them to create summary curves, and compare them with a high-resolution, summary chironomid-based temperature record and other independent palaeoclimate records. The stacked records show that the "Holocene Thermal Maximum" in the region dates to 8000 to 4800 cal yr BP and that the "8.2 event" and the "Little Ice Age" at 500–100 cal yr BP are the clearest cold episodes during the Holocene. In addition, a more detailed analysis of the last 5000 years pinpoints centennial-scale climate variability with cold anomalies at 3800–3000 and 500–100 cal yr BP, a long, warmer period around 2000 cal yr BP, and a marked warming since the mid 19th century. The colder (warmer) anomalies are associated with increased (decreased) humidity over the Northern European mainland, consistent with the modern high correlation between cold (warm) and humid (dry) modes of summer weather in the region. A comparison with the key proxy records reflecting the main forcing factors does not support the hypothesis that solar variability is the cause of the late-Holocene centennial-scale temperature changes. We suggest that the reconstructed anomalies are typical of Northern Europe and their occurrence may be related to the oceanic and atmospheric circulation variability in the North Atlantic–North-European region.

scholarly journals Last nine-thousand years of temperature variability in Northern Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Seppä ◽  
A. E. Bjune ◽  
R. J. Telford ◽  
H. J. B. Birks ◽  
S. Veski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Temperature Record ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Thermal Maximum ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
The North ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Future Global Warming

Abstract. The threat of future global warming has generated a major interest in quantifying past climate variability on centennial and millennial time-scales. However, palaeoclimatological records are often noisy and arguments about past variability are only possible if they are based on reproducible features in several reliably dated datasets. Here we focus on the last 9000 years, explore the results of 36 Holocene pollen-based July mean and annual mean temperature reconstructions from Northern Europe by stacking them to create summary curves, and compare them with a high-resolution, summary chironomid-based temperature record and other independent palaeoclimate records. The stacked records show that the "Holocene Thermal Maximum" in the region dates to 8000 to 4800 cal yr BP and that the "8.2 event" and the "Little Ice Age" at 500–100 cal yr BP are the clearest cold episodes during the Holocene. In addition, a more detailed analysis of the last 5000 years pinpoints centennial-scale climate variability with cold anomalies at 3800–3000 and 500–100 cal yr BP, a long, warmer period around 2000 cal yr BP, and a marked warming since the mid 19th century. The colder (warmer) anomalies are associated with increased (decreased) humidity over the northern European mainland, consistent with the modern high correlation between cold (warm) and humid (dry) modes of summer weather in the region. A comparison with the key proxy records reflecting the main forcing factors does not support the hypothesis that solar variability is the cause of the late-Holocene centennial-scale temperature changes. We suggest that the reconstructed anomalies are typical of Northern Europe and their occurrence may be related to the oceanic and atmospheric circulation variability in the North Atlantic – North-European region.

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