Ford, Heather L; Ravelo, Ana Christina (2018): Surface and subsurface single foraminifera analyses from the Western Pacific Warm Pool over the Plio-Pleistocene [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885632, Supplement to: Ford, HL; Ravelo, AC (2019): Estimates of Pliocene Tropical Pacific Temperature Sensitivity to Radiative Greenhouse Gas Forcing. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 34(1), 2-15, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018PA003461
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Abstract:
The Western Equatorial Pacific (WEP) warm pool, with surface temperatures >28 °C and a relatively deep thermocline, is an important source of latent and sensible heat for the global climate system. Because the tropics are not sensitive to ice‐albedo feedbacks, the WEP's response to radiative forcing can be used to constrain a minimum estimate of Earth system sensitivity. Climate modeling of pCO2‐radiative warming projections shows little change in WEP variability; here we use temperature distributions of individual surface and subsurface dwelling fossil foraminifera to evaluate past variability and possible radiative and dynamic climate forcing over the Plio‐Pleistocene. We investigate WEP warm pool variability within paired glacial‐interglacial (G‐IG) intervals for four times: the Holocene‐Last Glacial Maximum, ~2 Ma, ~3 Ma, and ~ 4 Ma. Our results show that these surface and subsurface temperature distributions are similar for all G‐IG pairs, indicating no change in variability, even as pCO2‐radiative forcing and other boundary conditions changed on G‐IG timescales. Plio‐Pleistocene SST distributions are similar to those from the Holocene, indicating WEP SSTs respond to pCO2‐radiative forcing and associated feedbacks. In contrast, Plio‐Pleistocene subsurface temperature distributions suggest subsurface temperatures respond to changes in thermocline temperature and depth. We estimate tropical temperature sensitivity for the mid‐Pliocene (~3 Ma) using our individual foraminifera SST dataset and a previously published high‐resolution boron isotope based pCO2 reconstruction. We find tropical temperature sensitivity was equal to, or less than that of the Late Pleistocene.
Project(s):
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)
Coverage:
Latitude: 0.318667 * Longitude: 159.361000
Date/Time Start: 1990-02-17T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 1990-02-25T00:00:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
2 datasets
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Datasets listed in this publication series
- Ford, HL; Ravelo, AC (2018): Surface and subsurface analyses of Globorotalia tumida from ODP site 130-806. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885611
- Ford, HL; Ravelo, AC (2018): Surface and subsurface analyses of Trilobatus sacculifer from ODP site 130-806. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885612