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Sea-level and deep-sea-temperature variability over the past 5.3 million years

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 18 June 2014

Abstract

Ice volume (and hence sea level) and deep-sea temperature are key measures of global climate change. Sea level has been documented using several independent methods over the past 0.5 million years (Myr). Older periods, however, lack such independent validation; all existing records are related to deep-sea oxygen isotope (δ18O) data that are influenced by processes unrelated to sea level. For deep-sea temperature, only one continuous high-resolution (Mg/Ca-based) record exists, with related sea-level estimates, spanning the past 1.5 Myr. Here we present a novel sea-level reconstruction, with associated estimates of deep-sea temperature, which independently validates the previous 0–1.5 Myr reconstruction and extends it back to 5.3 Myr ago. We find that deep-sea temperature and sea level generally decreased through time, but distinctly out of synchrony, which is remarkable given the importance of ice-albedo feedbacks on the radiative forcing of climate. In particular, we observe a large temporal offset during the onset of Plio-Pleistocene ice ages, between a marked cooling step at 2.73 Myr ago and the first major glaciation at 2.15 Myr ago. Last, we tentatively infer that ice sheets may have grown largest during glacials with more modest reductions in deep-sea temperature.

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Figure 1: RSLGib compared with RSLBeM.
Figure 2: RSLGib for an eastern Mediterranean δ18Op stack, compared with other sea-level estimates.
Figure 3: Deep-sea temperature and δ18Ow components of deep-sea δ18Ob.
Figure 4: Expanded version of Fig. 3 for the past 1.5 Myr only.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Raymo for discussion of Pliocene sea-level estimates at the PALSEA2 workshop in Rome, October 2013, and all colleagues who made their data available—for example, via the PANGAEA and NOAA-NCDC Palaeoclimate data centres, or directly. This study was supported by 2012 Australian Laureate Fellowship FL120100050 (E.J.R.) and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) consortium project iGlass (E.J.R., M.T., F.W., A.P.R.). F.W. acknowledges an Australian Bicentennial Scholarship Award from the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London.

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E.J.R. led the study, and performed the calculations. F.W. contributed the assessment of isostatic effects under the guidance of M.T. All authors contributed specialist insights to the discussions and helped with composing and refining the manuscript.

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Correspondence to E. J. Rohling.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Summary of our sapropel detection method.

A mean-normalized version of the eastern Mediterranean δ18O stack22 after linear detrending (black; left-hand y axis) is shown along with preliminary core-scanner XRF Ba/Al data for ODP Site 967 (orange; right-hand y axis). Also shown are eastern Mediterranean sapropel intervals according to the chronology of Kroon et al.62 (vertical blue bars), and according to Emeis et al.21 (vertical green dashes). Note that minor chronological differences may exist relative to Wang et al.22, and that previous sapropel recognition21,62 was mainly done on the basis of colour. Also shown are the eccentricity-related component in the Mediterranean δ18O stack based on two rectangular bandpass filters for periods of 80–130 kyr and 360–440 kyr (dark blue), and our upcrossing cut-off criterion based on the eccentricity-related component plus 3 standard deviations of short-term (sub-10-kyr) variability (red). The yellow bars indicate three sapropel(-like) intervals that were not detected with this method, but which are apparent compared to other methods (main text).

Extended Data Figure 2 δ18O-to-RSL ‘converters’ calculated in the present study.

a, For G. ruber (white). b, For N. pachyderma (dextral). Data are shown with polynomial fits for: the mean (red), 68% probability limits (blue) and 95% probability limits (green). Equations (below) for the polynomial fits are those used to establish RSLGib changes from eastern Mediterranean δ18O changes. For G. ruber (white), the fit equations are (from top/right to bottom/left): y = 18.23253367 − 54.32756406x + 2.68013962x2, y = 9.359718967 − 53.88724018x + 2.336521849x2, y = –54.33006067x + 2.144129497x2, y = –9.721121814 – 54.4447188x + 1.639979972x2, and y = –19.83859107 − 54.97329064x + 1.027303677x2. For N. pachyderma (dextral), the fit equations are (from top/right to bottom/left): y = 20.27152514 − 61.45134479x + 3.673345939x2, y = 10.65608987 − 61.68573435x + 3.521130244x2, y = –61.74158411x + 3.12127659x2, y = –11.37304383 − 61.90236624x + 2.499068186x2, and y = –22.84772173 − 63.3490518x + 2.014759373x2.

Extended Data Figure 3 Preliminary isostatic assessment results for the Camarinal sill, the critical location of water-exchange control for the Strait of Gibraltar.

a, Over the past 150 kyr. b, Magnified for the past 40 kyr. Orange is the range of modelled RSL, blue is the range of associated global mean (eustatic) sea levels (ESL). The graph illustrates that RSLGib is—to a first approximation over the long timescales considered in the present study—related to ESL through a ratio that is relatively constant over the range of sea levels considered (see also Extended Data Fig. 4 and Methods).

Extended Data Figure 4 Global mean ESL versus RSLGib over the full range of 495 Earth model configurations considered.

This reveals that, to a first approximation, ESL = 1.23 RSLGib, with a 95% probability interval on the slope value between 1.15 and 1.31.

Extended Data Table 1 Tie-points between the Lisiecki and Raymo and Wang et al. chronologies
Extended Data Table 2 Other evidence of late Pliocene climate change

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Rohling, E., Foster, G., Grant, K. et al. Sea-level and deep-sea-temperature variability over the past 5.3 million years. Nature 508, 477–482 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13230

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