The spatial and temporal complexity of the Holocene thermal maximum

Renssen, H.; Seppä, Heikki; Heiri, Oliver; Roche, Didier M.; Goosse, Hugues; Fichefet, Thierry

doi:10.1038/ngeo513

Cited by 498 publications

(533 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This timing of maximum warming is consistent with postglacial climate development in central and northern Europe (e.g. Davis et al, 2003), suggesting strong climate teleconnections to Europe via the westerly wind system (Müller et al, 2009;Renssen et al, 2009;Biskaborn et al, 2012).…”

Section: Regional Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 49%

Holocene climate conditions in central Yakutia (Eastern Siberia) inferred from sediment composition and fossil chironomids of Lake Temje

Nazarova

Lüpfert

Subetto

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

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a b s t r a c tA 380 cm long sediment core from Lake Temje (central Yakutia, Eastern Siberia) was studied to infer Holocene palaeoenvironmental change in the extreme periglacial setting of eastern Siberia during the last 10,000 years. Data on sediment composition were used to characterize changes in the depositional environment during the ontogenetic development of the Lake Temje. The analysis of fossil chironomid remains and statistical treatment of chironomid data by the application of a newly developed regional Russian transfer functions provided inferences of mean July air temperatures (T July ) and water depths (WD). Reconstructed WDs show minor changes throughout the core and range between 80 and 120 cm. All the fluctuations in reconstructed water depth lie within the mean error of prediction of the inference model (RMSEP ¼ 0.35) so it is not possible to draw conclusions from the reconstructions. A qualitative and quantitative reconstruction of Holocene climate in central Yakutia recognized three stages of palaeoenvironmental changes. The early Holocene between 10 and 8 ka BP was characterized by colderthan-today and moist summer conditions. Cryotextures in the lake sediments document full freezing of the lake water during the winter time. A general warming trend started around 8.0 ka BP in concert with enhanced biological productivity. Reconstructed mean T July were equal or up to 1.5 C higher than today between 6.0 ka and 5.0 ka BP. During the entire late Holocene after 4.8 ka BP, reconstructed mean T July remained below modern value. Limnological conditions did not change significantly. The inference of a mid-Holocene climate optimum supports scenarios of Holocene climatic changes in the subpolar part of eastern Siberia and indicates climate teleconnections to the North Atlantic realm.

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Section: Regional Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 49%

Holocene climate conditions in central Yakutia (Eastern Siberia) inferred from sediment composition and fossil chironomids of Lake Temje

Nazarova

Lüpfert

Subetto

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

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“…a broad ''warming'' or ''cooling'' over the last 10 ka. However, in some particular areas such as, e.g., those surrounding the North Atlantic Ocean, a broad maximum in temperature may have occurred later than 10 kyr BP because other climate feedbacks operate in this area (Renssen et al, 2009). The Mediterranean Sea, the Southern Ocean as well as some low-latitude records are indeed marked by mid-Holocene SST inflections, making the Holocene climate optimum occur between 10 and 6 kyr BP.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene and Eemian sea surface temperature trends as revealed by alkenone and Mg/Ca paleothermometry

Leduc

Schneider

Kim

et al. 2010

Quaternary Science Reviews

386

238

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a b s t r a c tIn this study we review a global set of alkenone-and foraminiferal Mg/Ca-derived sea surface temperatures (SST) records from the Holocene and compare them with a suite of published Eemian SST records based on the same approach. For the Holocene, the alkenone SST records belong to the actualized GHOST database (Kim, J.-H., Schneider R.R., (2004). GHOST global database for alkenone-derived Holocene seasurface temperature records. Available from: http://www.pangaea.de/Projects/GHOST.), while the Mg/ Ca-derived SST database represents a new compilation. The actualized GHOST database not only confirms the SST changes previously described but also documents the Holocene temperature evolution in new oceanic regions such as the Northwestern Atlantic, the eastern equatorial Pacific, and the Southern Ocean. A comparison of Holocene SST records stemming from the two commonly applied paleothermometry methods reveals contrasting -sometimes divergent -SST evolution, particularly at low latitudes where SST records are abundant enough to infer systematic discrepancies at a regional scale. Opposite SST trends at particular locations could be explained by out-of-phase trends in seasonal insolation during the Holocene. This hypothesis assumes that a strong contrast in the ecological responses of coccolithophores and planktonic foraminifera to winter and summer oceanographic conditions is the ultimate reason for seasonal differences in the origin of the temperature signal provided by these organisms. As a simple test for this hypothesis, Eemian SST records are considered because the Holocene and Eemian time periods experienced comparable changes in orbital configurations, but had a higher magnitude in insolation variance during the Eemian. For several regions, SST changes during both interglacials were of a similar sign, but with higher magnitudes during the Eemian as compared to the Holocene. This observation suggests that the ecological mechanism shaping SST trends during the Holocene was comparable during the penultimate interglacial period. Although this ''ecology hypothesis'' fails to explain all of the available results, we argue that any other mechanism would fail to satisfactorily explain the observed SST discrepancies among proxies.

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“…3B). Physically, in the Northern Hemisphere, the seasonal insolation changes by over ∼10% throughout the Holocene and is the dominant forcing for the trend of seasonal and regional temperature; a similar strong cooling trend in summer temperature has been produced in climate models over large areas of the Northern Hemisphere (3,5). We also tested other biased schemes in the model and found that the cooling trend in the biased stack is caused mainly by replacement of the annual SSTs by the summer SSTs in the sites of alkenone in the Northern Hemisphere (Fig.…”

Section: Uncertainty In Temperature Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1, blue). Numerous previous reconstructions have shown cooling trends in the Holocene, but most of these studies attribute the cooling trend to regional and/or seasonal climate changes (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). The distinct feature of the M13 reconstruction is that it arguably infers the cooling trend in the global mean and annual mean temperature.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Holocene temperature conundrum

Liu

Zhu

Rosenthal

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

415

342

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A recent temperature reconstruction of global annual temperature shows Early Holocene warmth followed by a cooling trend through the Middle to Late Holocene [Marcott SA, et al., 2013, Science 339(6124):1198-1201. This global cooling is puzzling because it is opposite from the expected and simulated global warming trend due to the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases. Our critical reexamination of this contradiction between the reconstructed cooling and the simulated warming points to potentially significant biases in both the seasonality of the proxy reconstruction and the climate sensitivity of current climate models.global temperature | Holocene temperature | model-data inconsistency I n the latest reconstruction of the global surface temperature throughout the Holocene (1) (hereafter M13), the most striking feature is a pronounced cooling trend of ∼0.5°C following the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) (∼10-6 ka) toward the late Holocene, with the Neoglacial cooling culminating in the Little Ice Age (LIA; ∼1,800 common era) (Fig. 1, blue). Numerous previous reconstructions have shown cooling trends in the Holocene, but most of these studies attribute the cooling trend to regional and/or seasonal climate changes (2-6). The distinct feature of the M13 reconstruction is that it arguably infers the cooling trend in the global mean and annual mean temperature. This inferred global annual cooling in the Holocene is puzzling: With no direct net contribution from the orbital insolation, the global annual mean radiative forcing in the Holocene should be dominated by the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), with both favoring a globally averaged warming. Therefore, how can the global annual temperature exhibit a cooling trend in response to global warming forcing? This inconsistency between the reconstructed cooling and the inferred warming forced by GHGs and ice sheet poses the so-called Holocene temperature conundrum and will be the subject of this study. Here, we study the global annual temperature trend in the Holocene and its physical mechanism by comparing the temperature reconstruction with three different transient climate model simulations. Our analysis shows a robust warming trend in current climate models, opposite from the cooling in the M13 reconstruction. This model-data discrepancy suggests potentially significant biases in both the reconstructions and current climate models, and calls for a major reexamination of global climate evolution in the Holocene. Model ExperimentsWe analyzed transient climate simulations in three coupled ocean-atmosphere models [Community Climate System Model 3 (CCSM3) (7), Fast Met Office/UK Universities Simulator (FAMOUS) (8), and Loch-Vecode-Ecbilt-Clio-Agism Model (LOVECLIM) (9); Methods] that are subject to realistic climate forcings of orbitally driven insolation variations, GHGs, continental ice sheets, and the associated meltwater fluxes. The three models all simulate a robust annual mean warming (∼0.5°C) throughout ...

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The spatial and temporal complexity of the Holocene thermal maximum

Cited by 498 publications

References 25 publications

Holocene climate conditions in central Yakutia (Eastern Siberia) inferred from sediment composition and fossil chironomids of Lake Temje

Holocene climate conditions in central Yakutia (Eastern Siberia) inferred from sediment composition and fossil chironomids of Lake Temje

Holocene and Eemian sea surface temperature trends as revealed by alkenone and Mg/Ca paleothermometry

The Holocene temperature conundrum

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