Subject
[4901] PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, Abrupt/rapid climate change, [4916] PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, Corals, [4926] PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, Glacial, [4954] PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, Sea surface temperature, [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph], [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph], [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes

Domains
Histoire, Océanographie, Sciences de la Terre, Climatologie

Description

International audience Coral Sr/Ca-based reconstructions have revealed a larger amplitude of sea surface temperature (SST) changes throughout the last deglaciation relative to foraminiferal Mg/Ca and alkenone-based SST reconstructions in the tropical Atlantic and the tropical southwestern Pacific. Here we present new coral Sr/Ca records from Tahiti in the central tropical South Pacific derived from fossil Porites sp. colonies drilled during IODP Expedition 310 (Tahiti Sea Level). These corals provide subseasonally resolved snapshots of tropical Pacific climate during the last deglaciation, accurately dated by U-series. We use (1) several living Porites colonies as a robust modern benchmark to take into account between-colony offsets in mean Sr/Ca of modern Tahiti Porites corals, (2) a thorough diagenetic screening procedure, and (3) a common aragonite standard to correct for inter-laboratory offsets in mean Sr/Ca. Based on this approach we conclude that early Holocene SST was not significantly lower than today and that early last deglacial SST was not lower by several degrees relative to modern SST in this region of the tropical Pacific, as reported in earlier coral Sr/Ca-based reconstructions from the tropical oceans. However, our results indicate a significant cooling during the Younger Dryas consistent with earlier results from Vanuatu in the western tropical South Pacific. Our new coral Sr/Ca-based SST estimates from Tahiti in the central tropical South Pacific provide a supplement to foraminiferal Mg/Ca and alkenone-based reconstructions of tropical Pacific SST, which are available from the far western and eastern part of the basin only.

Keywords
Environnement, Histoire, Environment, Océanographie, Climate change

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
Felis, Thomas, Asami, Ryuji, Deschamps, P., Hathorne, Ed C., Kölling, Martin, Durand, Nicolas, Cabioch, Guy, Bard, Edouard

Contributors
Chaire Evolution du climat et de l'océan ; Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) ; Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)) ; École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Sources
American Geophysical Union, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00910397, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, Dec 2011, San Francisco, United States. pp.1800

Relation

Coverage
Vanuatu

Name of newspaper