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Climate evolution through the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation

Climate evolution through the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
Climate evolution through the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
The Pliocene Epoch (∼5.3–2.6 million years ago, Ma) was characterized by a warmer than present climate with smaller Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, and offers an example of a climate system in long-term equilibrium with current or predicted near-future atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2). A long-term trend of ice-sheet expansion led to more pronounced glacial (cold) stages by the end of the Pliocene (∼2.6 Ma), known as the “intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation” (iNHG). We assessed the spatial and temporal variability of ocean temperatures and ice-volume indicators through the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (from 3.3 to 2.4 Ma) to determine the character of this climate transition. We identified asynchronous shifts in long-term means and the pacing and amplitude of shorter-term climate variability, between regions and between climate proxies. Early changes in Antarctic glaciation and Southern Hemisphere ocean properties occurred even during the mid-Piacenzian warm period (∼3.264–3.025 Ma) which has been used as an analog for future warming. Increased climate variability subsequently developed alongside signatures of larger Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (iNHG). Yet, some regions of the ocean felt no impact of iNHG, particularly in lower latitudes. Our analysis has demonstrated the complex, non-uniform and globally asynchronous nature of climate changes associated with the iNHG. Shifting ocean gateways and ocean circulation changes may have pre-conditioned the later evolution of ice sheets with falling atmospheric pCO2. Further development of high-resolution, multi-proxy reconstructions of climate is required so that the full potential of the rich and detailed geological records can be realized.
climate proxies, data synthesis, paleoceanography, paleoclimate
8755-1209
McClymont, Erin L.
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Ho, Sze-Ling
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Ford, Heather
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Bailey, Ian
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Berke, Melissa A.
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Bolton, Clara T.
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De Schepper, Stijn
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Grant, G. R.
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Groeneveld, Jeroen
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Inglis, Gordon
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Karas, Cyrus
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Paterson, Molly
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Swann, George E.A.
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Thirumalai, Kaustubh
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White, Sarah
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Garcia-Alonso, Monica
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Anand, Pallavi
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Hoogakker, Babette A.A.
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Littler, Kate
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Petrick, Benjamin
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Risebrobakken, Bjorn
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Abell, Jordon
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Crocker, Anya
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de Graaf, F
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Feakins, Sarah
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Hargreaves, Julia
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Jones, C. L.
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Markowska, M.
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Ratnayake, A. S.
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Stepanek, C.
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Tangunan, D.
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McClymont, Erin L.
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Ho, Sze-Ling
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Ford, Heather
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Bailey, Ian
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Berke, Melissa A.
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Bolton, Clara T.
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De Schepper, Stijn
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Grant, G. R.
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Groeneveld, Jeroen
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Inglis, Gordon
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Karas, Cyrus
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Paterson, Molly
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Swann, George E.A.
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Thirumalai, Kaustubh
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White, Sarah
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Garcia-Alonso, Monica
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Anand, Pallavi
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Hoogakker, Babette A.A.
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Littler, Kate
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Petrick, Benjamin
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Risebrobakken, Bjorn
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Abell, Jordon
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Crocker, Anya
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de Graaf, F
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Feakins, Sarah
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Hargreaves, Julia
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Jones, C. L.
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Markowska, M.
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Ratnayake, A. S.
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Stepanek, C.
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Tangunan, D.
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McClymont, Erin L., Ho, Sze-Ling, Ford, Heather, Bailey, Ian, Berke, Melissa A., Bolton, Clara T., De Schepper, Stijn, Grant, G. R., Groeneveld, Jeroen, Inglis, Gordon, Karas, Cyrus, Paterson, Molly, Swann, George E.A., Thirumalai, Kaustubh, White, Sarah, Garcia-Alonso, Monica, Anand, Pallavi, Hoogakker, Babette A.A., Littler, Kate, Petrick, Benjamin, Risebrobakken, Bjorn, Abell, Jordon, Crocker, Anya, de Graaf, F, Feakins, Sarah, Hargreaves, Julia, Jones, C. L., Markowska, M., Ratnayake, A. S., Stepanek, C. and Tangunan, D. (2023) Climate evolution through the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Reviews of Geophysics, 61 (3), [e2022RG000793]. (doi:10.1029/2022RG000793).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The Pliocene Epoch (∼5.3–2.6 million years ago, Ma) was characterized by a warmer than present climate with smaller Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, and offers an example of a climate system in long-term equilibrium with current or predicted near-future atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2). A long-term trend of ice-sheet expansion led to more pronounced glacial (cold) stages by the end of the Pliocene (∼2.6 Ma), known as the “intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation” (iNHG). We assessed the spatial and temporal variability of ocean temperatures and ice-volume indicators through the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (from 3.3 to 2.4 Ma) to determine the character of this climate transition. We identified asynchronous shifts in long-term means and the pacing and amplitude of shorter-term climate variability, between regions and between climate proxies. Early changes in Antarctic glaciation and Southern Hemisphere ocean properties occurred even during the mid-Piacenzian warm period (∼3.264–3.025 Ma) which has been used as an analog for future warming. Increased climate variability subsequently developed alongside signatures of larger Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (iNHG). Yet, some regions of the ocean felt no impact of iNHG, particularly in lower latitudes. Our analysis has demonstrated the complex, non-uniform and globally asynchronous nature of climate changes associated with the iNHG. Shifting ocean gateways and ocean circulation changes may have pre-conditioned the later evolution of ice sheets with falling atmospheric pCO2. Further development of high-resolution, multi-proxy reconstructions of climate is required so that the full potential of the rich and detailed geological records can be realized.

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Accepted/In Press date: 26 April 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 July 2023
Published date: September 2023
Additional Information: Funding Information: We thank the Past Global Changes (PAGES) programme for their financial and logistical support of the working group on Pliocene Climate Variability over glacial-interglacial timescales (PlioVAR), and we thank all workshop participants and members of the PlioVAR steering committee for their discussions. Funding support has also been provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (PA, HLF [NE/N015045/1]), the Leverhulme Trust (Philip Leverhulme Prize, ELM), the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (SLH, Grants 110-2611-M-002-028-, 111-2611-M-002-027-), MICIN (MAG, the Grant PICTURE, PID2021-128322NB-I00), a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (GNI, DHF\R1\191178), the Research Council of Norway (BR, Grant 221712), the German Research Foundation (JG, project DePac—GR 3528/8-1), the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Anillo (CK, Grant ACT210046), the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (CK, Grant DICYT 092112KSSA), a UKRI Future Leaderships Fellowship (BH, MR/S034293/1), the USA National Science Foundation (JA, Grant NSF-OCE-PRF #2126500) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France (CTB, ANR-16-CE01-0004) and the IODP in the UK (PA) and France (CTB). This research used samples and/or data provided by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). We also acknowledge PANGAEA and the NOAA Paleoclimatology databases for free access to published data. The work presented here resulted from the efforts of the late Antoni Rosell-Melé to generate a community effort to facilitate a better understanding of Pliocene and Pleistocene climate evolution: we thank him for all of his work and enthusiasm getting PlioVAR up and running, and for contributing to our discussions and assessments over the years that followed. Funding Information: We thank the Past Global Changes (PAGES) programme for their financial and logistical support of the working group on Pliocene Climate Variability over glacial‐interglacial timescales (PlioVAR), and we thank all workshop participants and members of the PlioVAR steering committee for their discussions. Funding support has also been provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (PA, HLF [NE/N015045/1]), the Leverhulme Trust (Philip Leverhulme Prize, ELM), the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (SLH, Grants 110‐2611‐M‐002‐028‐, 111‐2611‐M‐002‐027‐), MICIN (MAG, the Grant PICTURE, PID2021‐128322NB‐I00), a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (GNI, DHF\R1\191178), the Research Council of Norway (BR, Grant 221712), the German Research Foundation (JG, project DePac—GR 3528/8‐1), the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Anillo (CK, Grant ACT210046), the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (CK, Grant DICYT 092112KSSA), a UKRI Future Leaderships Fellowship (BH, MR/S034293/1), the USA National Science Foundation (JA, Grant NSF‐OCE‐PRF #2126500) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France (CTB, ANR‐16‐CE01‐0004) and the IODP in the UK (PA) and France (CTB). This research used samples and/or data provided by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). We also acknowledge PANGAEA and the NOAA Paleoclimatology databases for free access to published data. The work presented here resulted from the efforts of the late Antoni Rosell‐Melé to generate a community effort to facilitate a better understanding of Pliocene and Pleistocene climate evolution: we thank him for all of his work and enthusiasm getting PlioVAR up and running, and for contributing to our discussions and assessments over the years that followed. Publisher Copyright: © 2023. The Authors.
Keywords: climate proxies, data synthesis, paleoceanography, paleoclimate

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 480425
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480425
ISSN: 8755-1209
PURE UUID: b86872c1-f5ef-4719-91b4-4827b1d0289e
ORCID for Gordon Inglis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0032-4668
ORCID for Anya Crocker: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9561-5750

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Date deposited: 02 Aug 2023 16:36
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:00

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Contributors

Author: Erin L. McClymont
Author: Sze-Ling Ho
Author: Heather Ford
Author: Ian Bailey
Author: Melissa A. Berke
Author: Clara T. Bolton
Author: Stijn De Schepper
Author: G. R. Grant
Author: Jeroen Groeneveld
Author: Gordon Inglis ORCID iD
Author: Cyrus Karas
Author: Molly Paterson
Author: George E.A. Swann
Author: Kaustubh Thirumalai
Author: Sarah White
Author: Monica Garcia-Alonso
Author: Pallavi Anand
Author: Babette A.A. Hoogakker
Author: Kate Littler
Author: Benjamin Petrick
Author: Bjorn Risebrobakken
Author: Jordon Abell
Author: Anya Crocker ORCID iD
Author: F de Graaf
Author: Sarah Feakins
Author: Julia Hargreaves
Author: C. L. Jones
Author: M. Markowska
Author: A. S. Ratnayake
Author: C. Stepanek
Author: D. Tangunan

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