Seasonal temperatures in West Antarctica during the Holocene. ...

• Main Authors: Jones, Tyler R, Cuffey, Kurt M, Roberts, William H G, Markle, Bradley R, Steig, Eric J, Stevens, C Max, Valdes, Paul J, Fudge, T J, Sigl, Michael, Hughes, Abigail G, Morris, Valerie, Vaughn, Bruce H, Garland, Joshua, Vinther, Bo M, Rozmiarek, Kevin S, Brashear, Chloe A, White, James W C
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer Nature 2023
• Subjects: 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie; 540 Chemie; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; ice core; Ice Sheet; West Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/177263; https://boris.unibe.ch/177263/

The recovery of long-term climate proxy records with seasonal resolution is rare because of natural smoothing processes, discontinuities and limitations in measurement resolution. Yet insolation forcing, a primary driver of multimillennial-scale climate change, acts through seasonal variations with direct impacts on seasonal climate1. Whether the sensitivity of seasonal climate to insolation matches theoretical predictions has not been assessed over long timescales. Here, we analyse a continuous record of water-isotope ratios from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core to reveal summer and winter temperature changes through the last 11,000 years. Summer temperatures in West Antarctica increased through the early-to-mid-Holocene, reached a peak 4,100 years ago and then decreased to the present. Climate model simulations show that these variations primarily reflect changes in maximum summer insolation, confirming the general connection between seasonal insolation and warming and demonstrating the ...