Greenland temperature response to climate forcing during the last deglaciation

Christo Buizert; Vasileios Gkinis; Jeffrey P Severinghaus; Feng He; Benoit S Lecavalier; Philippe Kindler; Markus Leuenberger; Anders E Carlson; Bo Vinther; Valérie Masson-Delmotte; James W C White; Zhengyu Liu; Bette Otto-Bliesner; Edward J Brook

doi:10.1126/science.1254961

Greenland temperature response to climate forcing during the last deglaciation

Science. 2014 Sep 5;345(6201):1177-80. doi: 10.1126/science.1254961.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. [email protected].
² Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
³ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
⁴ Center for Climatic Research, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial University, St. John's, Canada.
⁶ Division of Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁷ College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
⁸ Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁹ Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ 8212), Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
¹⁰ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
¹¹ Center for Climatic Research, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
¹² Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, USA.

PMID: 25190795
DOI: 10.1126/science.1254961

Abstract

Greenland ice core water isotopic composition (δ(18)O) provides detailed evidence for abrupt climate changes but is by itself insufficient for quantitative reconstruction of past temperatures and their spatial patterns. We investigate Greenland temperature evolution during the last deglaciation using independent reconstructions from three ice cores and simulations with a coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model. Contrary to the traditional δ(18)O interpretation, the Younger Dryas period was 4.5° ± 2°C warmer than the Oldest Dryas, due to increased carbon dioxide forcing and summer insolation. The magnitude of abrupt temperature changes is larger in central Greenland (9° to 14°C) than in the northwest (5° to 9°C), fingerprinting a North Atlantic origin. Simulated changes in temperature seasonality closely track changes in the Atlantic overturning strength and support the hypothesis that abrupt climate change is mostly a winter phenomenon.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Climate Change*
Computer Simulation
Freezing
Greenland
Ice Cover*
Models, Theoretical
Oxygen Isotopes / analysis
Temperature*

Substances

Oxygen Isotopes