Gradual onset and recovery of the Younger Dryas abrupt climate event in the tropics

Proxy records of temperature from the Atlantic clearly show that the Younger Dryas was an abrupt climate change event during the last deglaciation, but records of hydroclimate are underutilized in defining the event. Here we combine a new hydroclimate record from Palawan, Philippines, in the tropica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Partin, J.W., Quinn, T.M., Shen, C.-C., Okumura, Y., Cardenas, M.B., Siringan, F.P., Banner, J.L., Lin, K., Hu, H.-M., Taylor, F.W.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Nature Pub. Group 2015
Subjects:
Article
Greenland
Pacific
Sea ice
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569703/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26329911
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9061
Description
Summary:Proxy records of temperature from the Atlantic clearly show that the Younger Dryas was an abrupt climate change event during the last deglaciation, but records of hydroclimate are underutilized in defining the event. Here we combine a new hydroclimate record from Palawan, Philippines, in the tropical Pacific, with previously published records to highlight a difference between hydroclimate and temperature responses to the Younger Dryas. Although the onset and termination are synchronous across the records, tropical hydroclimate changes are more gradual (>100 years) than the abrupt (10–100 years) temperature changes in the northern Atlantic Ocean. The abrupt recovery of Greenland temperatures likely reflects changes in regional sea ice extent. Proxy data and transient climate model simulations support the hypothesis that freshwater forced a reduction in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, thereby causing the Younger Dryas. However, changes in ocean overturning may not produce the same effects globally as in Greenland.

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