Response to Comments on ‘Does the Agulhas Current amplify global temperatures during super‐interglacials?’

Turney, Chris S. M.; Jones, Richard T.

doi:10.1002/jqs.1556

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The Last Interglacial SST database is provided as an Excel workbook in the Supplement and by the PANGAEA Data Publisher at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904381 (Turney et al, 2019); the data are also available on the NCEI-Paleo/World Data Service for Paleoclimatology at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/26851 (Turney et al, 2020b). This release comprises a single tab-delimited Excel file.…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A global mean sea surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 ka) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea level change

Turney

Jones

McKay

et al. 2020

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. A valuable analogue for assessing Earth's sensitivity to warming is the Last Interglacial (LIG; 129–116 ka), when global temperatures (0 to +2 ∘C) and mean sea level (+6 to 11 m) were higher than today. The direct contribution of warmer conditions to global sea level (thermosteric) is uncertain. We report here a global network of LIG sea surface temperatures (SST) obtained from various published temperature proxies (e.g. faunal and floral plankton assemblages, Mg ∕ Ca ratios of calcareous organisms, and alkenone U37K′). We summarize the current limitations of SST reconstructions for the LIG and the spatial temperature features of a naturally warmer world. Because of local δ18O seawater changes, uncertainty in the age models of marine cores, and differences in sampling resolution and/or sedimentation rates, the reconstructions are restricted to mean conditions. To avoid bias towards individual LIG SSTs based on only a single (and potentially erroneous) measurement or a single interpolated data point, here we report average values across the entire LIG. Each site reconstruction is given as an anomaly relative to 1981–2010, corrected for ocean drift, and where available seasonal estimates are provided (189 annual, 99 December–February, and 92 June–August records). To investigate the sensitivity of the reconstruction to high temperatures, we also report maximum values during the first 5 millennia of the LIG (129–124 ka). We find mean global annual SST anomalies of 0.2 ± 0.1 ∘C averaged across the LIG and an early maximum peak of 0.9 ± 0.1 ∘C, respectively. The global dataset provides a remarkably coherent pattern of higher SST increases at polar latitudes than in the tropics (demonstrating the polar amplification of surface temperatures during the LIG), with comparable estimates between different proxies. Polewards of 45∘ latitude, we observe annual SST anomalies averaged across the full LIG of > 0.8 ± 0.3 ∘C in both hemispheres with an early maximum peak of > 2.1 ± 0.3 ∘C. Using the reconstructed SSTs suggests a mean LIG global thermosteric sea level rise of 0.08 ± 0.1 m and a peak contribution of 0.39 ± 0.1 m, respectively (assuming warming penetrated to 2000 m depth). The data provide an important natural baseline for a warmer world, constraining the contributions of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to global sea level during a geographically widespread expression of high sea level, and can be used to test the next inter-comparison of models for projecting future climate change. The dataset described in this paper, including summary temperature and thermosteric sea level reconstructions, is available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904381 (Turney et al., 2019).

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Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we present version 1.0 of the Last Interglacial SST database (Turney et al, 2019). This database builds on the previously published 2010 data compilation of Turney and Jones (2010), and includes substantially more records.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global mean sea surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 ka) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea level change

Turney

Jones

McKay

et al. 2020

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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show abstract

“…With the ever-increasing number of quantified temperature reconstructions of the LIG reported in individual publications, it is crucial that these datasets are brought together to derive a comprehensive reconstruction of global change during the LIG. A further consideration is that in contrast to terrestrial sequences, marine records typically provide a continuous record of LIG conditions (Turney and Jones, 2010;Turney and Jones, 2011), providing an opportunity to determine the sensitivity of GMSL to Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) conditions during the interglacial (including early maximum temperatures). Given the estimated warming of 2˚C (Turney and Jones, 2010), the LIG potentially provides insights into the drivers of sea level rise and the long-term impacts under a global temperature target set out in the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement (Schellnhuber et al, 2016;Mercer, 1978).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A global mean sea-surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 kyr) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea-level change

Turney¹,

Jones²,

McKay³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. A valuable analogue for assessing Earth’s sensitivity to warming is the Last Interglacial (LIG; 129–116 kyr), when global temperatures (0−+2 °C) and mean sea level (+6–11 m) were higher than today. The direct contribution of warmer conditions to global sea level (thermosteric) are uncertain. We report here a global network of LIG sea surface temperatures (SST) obtained from various published temperature proxies (e.g. faunal/floral assemblages, Mg/Ca ratios of calcareous plankton, alkenone UK’37). Each reconstruction is averaged across the LIG (anomalies relative to 1981–2010), corrected for ocean drift and with varying seasonality (189 annual, 99 December-February, and 92 June–August records). We summarise the current limitations of SST reconstructions for the LIG and the spatial temperature features of a naturally warmer world. Because of local δ18O seawater changes, uncertainty in the age models of marine cores, and differences in sampling resolution and/or sedimentation rates, the reconstructions are restricted to mean conditions. To avoid bias towards individual LIG SSTs based on only a single (and potentially erroneous) measurement or a single interpolated data point, here we average across the entire LIG. To investigate the sensitivity of the reconstruction to high temperatures, we also report maximum values during the first 5 ka of the LIG (129–124 kyr). The global dataset provides a remarkably coherent pattern of higher SST increases at polar latitudes than in the tropics, with comparable estimates between different SST proxies. We report mean global annual SST anomalies of 0.2 ± 0.1 °C and a maximum of 0.9 ± 0.2 °C respectively. Using the reconstructed SSTs suggests a mean thermosteric sea level rise of 0.01 ± 0.1 m and a maximum of 0.13 ± 0.1 m respectively. The data provide an important natural baseline for a warmer world, constraining the contributions of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to global sea level during a geographically widespread expression of high sea level, and can be used to test the next inter-comparison of models for projecting future climate change. The dataset described in this paper, including summary temperature and thermosteric sea-level reconstructions, are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.904381 (Turney et al., 2019).

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Response to Comments on ‘Does the Agulhas Current amplify global temperatures during super‐interglacials?’

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

A global mean sea surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 ka) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea level change

A global mean sea surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 ka) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea level change

A global mean sea-surface temperature dataset for the Last Interglacial (129–116 kyr) and contribution of thermal expansion to sea-level change

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