Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years (original) (raw)

Nature volume 491, pages 744–747 (2012) Cite this article

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Abstract

Current global warming necessitates a detailed understanding of the relationships between climate and global ice volume. Highly resolved and continuous sea-level records are essential for quantifying ice-volume changes. However, an unbiased study of the timing of past ice-volume changes, relative to polar climate change, has so far been impossible because available sea-level records either were dated by using orbital tuning or ice-core timescales, or were discontinuous in time. Here we present an independent dating of a continuous, high-resolution sea-level record1,2 in millennial-scale detail throughout the past 150,000 years. We find that the timing of ice-volume fluctuations agrees well with that of variations in Antarctic climate and especially Greenland climate. Amplitudes of ice-volume fluctuations more closely match Antarctic (rather than Greenland) climate changes. Polar climate and ice-volume changes, and their rates of change, are found to covary within centennial response times. Finally, rates of sea-level rise reached at least 1.2 m per century during all major episodes of ice-volume reduction.

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Figure 1: Correlation of Soreq Cave and eastern Mediterranean (LC21) δ 18 O signals and the Red Sea RSL record.

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Figure 2: Comparison of probabilistic assessment of RSL with other sea-level reconstructions and with Antarctic and Greenland climate variability.

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Figure 3: Lagged correlations of Antarctic and Greenland climate versus ice volume (sea-level), and rates of sea-level change over the last full glacial cycle.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Dutton for comments that improved the manuscript. S. Lee helped with the use of OxCal. This study contributes to UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) projects NE/H004424/1, NE/E01531X/1 and NE/I009906/1, to a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (E.J.R.), and to a 2012 Australian Laureate Fellowship FL120100050 (E.J.R.).

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Author notes

  1. M. Medina-Elizalde
    Present address: Present address: Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Unidad Ciencias del Agua, Calle 8, No. 39, Mz. 29, S.M. 64 Cancun, Quintana Roo, CP 77500, México.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK,
    K. M. Grant, E. J. Rohling & M. Medina-Elizalde
  2. Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
    E. J. Rohling & A. P. Roberts
  3. Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malchei Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel,
    M. Bar-Matthews & A. Ayalon
  4. Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK,
    C. Bronk Ramsey
  5. Department of Geography, Queens Building, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
    C. Satow

Authors

  1. K. M. Grant
  2. E. J. Rohling
  3. M. Bar-Matthews
  4. A. Ayalon
  5. M. Medina-Elizalde
  6. C. Bronk Ramsey
  7. C. Satow
  8. A. P. Roberts

Contributions

K.M.G. led the study. E.J.R. designed the study, contributed to statistical analyses and co-wrote the paper. M.B.-M. and A.A. developed the Soreq Cave speleothem record. M.M.E. contributed to the interpretations. C.B.R. supported the Bayesian age modelling. C.S. contributed the LC21 tephrachronology. A.P.R. contributed to the discussion of results and manuscript refinement.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toK. M. Grant.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Grant, K., Rohling, E., Bar-Matthews, M. et al. Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years.Nature 491, 744–747 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11593

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Editorial Summary

A 150,000-year sea-level record

Global sea level and the extent of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are inextricably linked, but the precise timing of their changes has been unclear because it is difficult to obtain consistently and accurately dated long-term sea-level records. Here, the authors provide a markedly improved chronology of sea-level changes in the Red Sea during the past 150,000 years by cross-referencing to a more easily dateable record in the eastern Mediterranean. They find that sea level is linked to climate variation in both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets on a centennial scale, but more so to Antarctica. Sea level seems to lag the Antarctic climate by a few hundred years; it is tied more contemporaneously to Greenland's climate.