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Magnitude and timing of temperature change in the Indo-Pacific warm pool during deglaciation

Nature volume 421, pages 152–155 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Ocean–atmosphere interactions in the tropical Pacific region have a strong influence on global heat and water vapour transport and thus constitute an important component of the climate system1,2. Changes in sea surface temperatures and convection in the tropical Indo-Pacific region are thought to be responsible for the interannual to decadal climate variability observed in extra-tropical regions1,3, but the role of the tropics in climate changes on millennial and orbital timescales is less clear. Here we analyse oxygen isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios of foraminiferal shells from the Makassar strait in the heart of the Indo-Pacific warm pool, to obtain synchronous estimates of sea surface temperatures and ice volume. We find that sea surface temperatures increased by 3.5–4.0 °C during the last two glacial—interglacial transitions, synchronous with the global increase in atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic warming, but the temperature increase occurred 2,000–3,000 years before the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets melted. Our observations suggest that the tropical Pacific region plays an important role in driving glacial—interglacial cycles, possibly through a system similar to how El Niño/Southern Oscillation regulates the poleward flux of heat and water vapour.

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Figure 1: Map of sea surface temperature of the western Pacific and Indonesian region.
Figure 2: Globigerinoides ruber oxygen isotope (purple curve) and Mg/Ca SST (green curve) records for core MD9821-62 plotted versus time for MIS 1 and 2 (a) and MIS 5e and 6 (b).
Figure 3: Comparison of the MD9821-62 G. ruber δ18O (purple curve) and Mg/Ca SST (green curve) records with the Vostok CO2 (red curve) and deuterium isotope (blue curve) records22.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Tappa for technical assistance. This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (R.T. and L.S.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, 29205, USA

    Katherine Visser & Robert Thunell

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089, USA

    Lowell Stott

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  1. Katherine Visser
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  2. Robert Thunell
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  3. Lowell Stott
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Correspondence to Robert Thunell.

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Visser, K., Thunell, R. & Stott, L. Magnitude and timing of temperature change in the Indo-Pacific warm pool during deglaciation. Nature 421, 152–155 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01297

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