Mean global ocean temperatures during the last glacial transition

• Main Authors: Bereiter, Bernhard, Shackleton, Sarah, Baggenstos, Daniel, Kawamura, Kenji, Severinghaus, Jeff
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2018
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Geology; Climate Action; Life Below Water; Antarctic Regions; Atmosphere; Carbon Dioxide; Climate; History; 21st Century; Ancient; Hot Temperature; Ice Cover; Noble Gases; Oceans and Seas; Seasons; Temperature; General Science & Technology; Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2q28m2k6

Little is known about the ocean temperature's long-term response to climate perturbations owing to limited observations and a lack of robust reconstructions. Although most of the anthropogenic heat added to the climate system has been taken up by the ocean up until now, its role in a century and beyond is uncertain. Here, using noble gases trapped in ice cores, we show that the mean global ocean temperature increased by 2.57 ± 0.24 degrees Celsius over the last glacial transition (20,000 to 10,000 years ago). Our reconstruction provides unprecedented precision and temporal resolution for the integrated global ocean, in contrast to the depth-, region-, organism- and season-specific estimates provided by other methods. We find that the mean global ocean temperature is closely correlated with Antarctic temperature and has no lead or lag with atmospheric CO2, thereby confirming the important role of Southern Hemisphere climate in global climate trends. We also reveal an enigmatic 700-year warming during the early Younger Dryas period (about 12,000 years ago) that surpasses estimates of modern ocean heat uptake.