Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Pliocene-Pleistocene evolution of sea surface and intermediate water temperatures from the southwest Pacific

McClymont, E.L.; Elmore, A.C.; Kender, S.; Leng, M.J.; Greaves, M.; Elderfield, H.

Pliocene-Pleistocene evolution of sea surface and intermediate water temperatures from the southwest Pacific Thumbnail


Authors

A.C. Elmore

S. Kender

M.J. Leng

M. Greaves

H. Elderfield



Abstract

Over the last 5 million years, the global climate system has evolved toward a colder mean state, marked by large-amplitude oscillations in continental ice volume. Equatorward expansion of polar waters and strengthening temperature gradients have been detected. However, the response of the mid latitudes and high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere is not well documented, despite the potential importance for climate feedbacks including sea ice distribution and low-high latitude heat transport. Here we reconstruct the Pliocene-Pleistocene history of both sea surface and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) temperatures on orbital time scales from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 593 in the Tasman Sea, southwest Pacific. We confirm overall Pliocene-Pleistocene cooling trends in both the surface ocean and AAIW, although the patterns are complex. The Pliocene is warmer than modern, but our data suggest an equatorward displacement of the subtropical front relative to present and a poleward displacement of the subantarctic front of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Two main intervals of cooling, from ~3 Ma and ~1.5 Ma, are coeval with cooling and ice sheet expansion noted elsewhere and suggest that equatorward expansion of polar water masses also characterized the southwest Pacific through the Pliocene-Pleistocene. However, the observed trends in sea surface temperature and AAIW temperature are not identical despite an underlying link to the ACC, and intervals of unusual surface ocean warmth (~2 Ma) and large-amplitude variability in AAIW temperatures (from ~1 Ma) highlight complex interactions between equatorward displacements of fronts associated with the ACC and/or varying poleward heat transport from the subtropics.

Citation

McClymont, E., Elmore, A., Kender, S., Leng, M., Greaves, M., & Elderfield, H. (2016). Pliocene-Pleistocene evolution of sea surface and intermediate water temperatures from the southwest Pacific. Paleoceanography, 31(6), 895-913. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016pa002954

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 7, 2016
Online Publication Date Jun 30, 2016
Publication Date Jun 30, 2016
Deposit Date Jun 17, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Paleoceanography
Print ISSN 0883-8305
Electronic ISSN 1944-9186
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 6
Pages 895-913
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/2016pa002954

Files

Accepted Journal Article (12 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
© 2016. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.







You might also like



Downloadable Citations