Tierney, JE, Haywood, AM orcid.org/0000-0001-7008-0534, Feng, R et al. (2 more authors) (2019) Pliocene Warmth Consistent With Greenhouse Gas Forcing. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (15). pp. 9136-9144. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
With CO2 concentrations similar to today (410 ppm), the Pliocene Epoch offers insights into climate changes under a moderately warmer world. Previous work suggested a low zonal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient in the tropical Pacific during the Pliocene, the so‐called “permanent El Niño.” Here, we recalculate SSTs using the alkenone proxy and find moderate reductions in both the zonal and meridional SST gradients during the mid‐Piacenzian warm period. These reductions are captured by coupled climate model simulations of the Pliocene, especially those that simulate weaker Walker circulation. We also produce a spatial reconstruction of mid‐Piacenzian warm period Pacific SSTs that closely resembles both Pliocene and future, low‐emissions simulations, a pattern that is, to a first order, diagnostic of weaker Walker circulation. Therefore, Pliocene warmth does not require drastic changes in the climate system—rather, it supports the expectation that the Walker circulation will weaken in the future under higher CO2.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Pliocene; climate change; alkenones; tropical Pacific; Walker circulation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 21 Aug 2019 13:41 |
Last Modified: | 12 Sep 2019 15:08 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2019GL083802 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:149930 |
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