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Pliocene warmth and gradients

Nature Geoscience volume 8, pages 419–420 (2015)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

The Pliocene epoch (5.3–2.6 Ma) generates continued debate as an example of a warm climate with external forcing similar to the present day1. O'Brien et al.2 presented new multi-proxy sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions from the South China Sea, adding to this debate. Based on their records, and a hypothesized seawater chemistry adjustment to temperature reconstructions previously derived from the Mg/Ca ratios of planktonic foraminifera, they suggest that the western Pacific warm pool was “2 °C warmer than today” in the Pliocene. This contradicts previous evidence of long-term stability in warm pool SSTs1,3, but possibly reconciles temperature reconstructions and climate model simulations. Here we raise several points contrary to those conclusions.

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Figure 1: Reconstructed and simulated mid-Pliocene SST changes from pre-industrial conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Chris Brierley

  2. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic & Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, 22030, Virginia, USA

    Natalie Burls

  3. Department of Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, California, USA

    Christina Ravelo

  4. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    Alexey Fedorov

Authors
  1. Chris Brierley
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  2. Natalie Burls
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  3. Christina Ravelo
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  4. Alexey Fedorov
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Correspondence to Chris Brierley.

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Brierley, C., Burls, N., Ravelo, C. et al. Pliocene warmth and gradients. Nature Geosci 8, 419–420 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2444

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