Abstract We compare paleoclimate proxy records from central Greenland and the Aegean Sea to offer new insights into the causes, timing, and mechanisms of Holocene atmosphere-ocean interactions. A direct atmospheric link is revealed between Aegean sea surface temperature (SST) and high-latitude clima...
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Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
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2001
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Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.469.5279 http://www.highstand.org/erohling/Rohling-papers/2002-Rohling et al 2002 Holocene_Clim Dyn 18-587.pdf |
Summary: | Abstract We compare paleoclimate proxy records from central Greenland and the Aegean Sea to offer new insights into the causes, timing, and mechanisms of Holocene atmosphere-ocean interactions. A direct atmospheric link is revealed between Aegean sea surface temperature (SST) and high-latitude climate. The major Holocene events in our proxies of Aegean SST and winter/spring intensity of the Siberian High (GISP2 K+ record) follow an 2300 year spacing, recognised also in the D14C record and in worldwide Holocene glacier ad-vance phases, suggesting a solar modulation of climate. We argue that the primary atmospheric response involved decadal-centennial fluctuations in the merid-ional pressure gradient, driving Aegean SST events via changes in the strength, duration, and/or frequency of northerly polar/continental air outbreaks over the basin. The observed natural variability should be accounted for in predictions of future climate change, and our time-frame for the Aegean climate events in addition provides an independent chronostratigraphic argument to Middle Eastern archaeological studies. |
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