Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States
Understanding how the hydrologic cycle has responded to warmer global temperatures in the past is especially important today as concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere continue to increase due to human activities. The Pliocene offers an ideal window into a climate system that has equilibrated with...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c037a5d0fbf746d7a6f55602c132e248 2023-05-15T16:41:20+02:00 Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States M. J. Winnick J. M. Welker C. P. Chamberlain 2013-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 https://doaj.org/article/c037a5d0fbf746d7a6f55602c132e248 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.clim-past.net/9/903/2013/cp-9-903-2013.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/c037a5d0fbf746d7a6f55602c132e248 Climate of the Past, Vol 9, Iss 2, Pp 903-912 (2013) Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 2022-12-30T22:45:28Z Understanding how the hydrologic cycle has responded to warmer global temperatures in the past is especially important today as concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere continue to increase due to human activities. The Pliocene offers an ideal window into a climate system that has equilibrated with current atmospheric p CO 2 . During the Pliocene the western United States was wetter than modern, an observation at odds with our current understanding of future warming scenarios, which involve the expansion and poleward migration of the subtropical dry zone. Here we compare Pliocene oxygen isotope profiles of pedogenic carbonates across the western US to modern isotopic anomalies in precipitation between phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We find that when accounting for seasonality of carbonate formation, isotopic changes through the late Pliocene match modern precipitation isotopic anomalies in El Niño years. Furthermore, isotopic shifts through the late Pliocene mirror changes through the early Pleistocene, which likely represents the southward migration of the westerly storm track caused by growth of the Laurentide ice sheet. We propose that the westerly storm track migrated northward through the late Pliocene with the development of the modern cold tongue in the east equatorial Pacific, then returned southward with widespread glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere – a scenario supported by terrestrial climate proxies across the US. Together these data support the proposed existence of background El Niño-like conditions in western North America during the warm Pliocene. If the earth behaves similarly with future warming, this observation has important implications with regard to the amount and distribution of precipitation in western North America. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Pacific Climate of the Past 9 2 903 912 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
topic |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
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Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 M. J. Winnick J. M. Welker C. P. Chamberlain Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
topic_facet |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Understanding how the hydrologic cycle has responded to warmer global temperatures in the past is especially important today as concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere continue to increase due to human activities. The Pliocene offers an ideal window into a climate system that has equilibrated with current atmospheric p CO 2 . During the Pliocene the western United States was wetter than modern, an observation at odds with our current understanding of future warming scenarios, which involve the expansion and poleward migration of the subtropical dry zone. Here we compare Pliocene oxygen isotope profiles of pedogenic carbonates across the western US to modern isotopic anomalies in precipitation between phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We find that when accounting for seasonality of carbonate formation, isotopic changes through the late Pliocene match modern precipitation isotopic anomalies in El Niño years. Furthermore, isotopic shifts through the late Pliocene mirror changes through the early Pleistocene, which likely represents the southward migration of the westerly storm track caused by growth of the Laurentide ice sheet. We propose that the westerly storm track migrated northward through the late Pliocene with the development of the modern cold tongue in the east equatorial Pacific, then returned southward with widespread glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere – a scenario supported by terrestrial climate proxies across the US. Together these data support the proposed existence of background El Niño-like conditions in western North America during the warm Pliocene. If the earth behaves similarly with future warming, this observation has important implications with regard to the amount and distribution of precipitation in western North America. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. J. Winnick J. M. Welker C. P. Chamberlain |
author_facet |
M. J. Winnick J. M. Welker C. P. Chamberlain |
author_sort |
M. J. Winnick |
title |
Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
title_short |
Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
title_full |
Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
title_fullStr |
Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stable isotopic evidence of El Niño-like atmospheric circulation in the Pliocene western United States |
title_sort |
stable isotopic evidence of el niño-like atmospheric circulation in the pliocene western united states |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 https://doaj.org/article/c037a5d0fbf746d7a6f55602c132e248 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 9, Iss 2, Pp 903-912 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://www.clim-past.net/9/903/2013/cp-9-903-2013.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/c037a5d0fbf746d7a6f55602c132e248 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-903-2013 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
903 |
op_container_end_page |
912 |
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