Abstract

We investigate the relationship between tropical Pacific and Southern Ocean variability during the Holocene using the stable oxygen isotope and magnesium/calcium records of cooccurring planktonic and benthic foraminifera from a marine sediment core collected in the western equatorial Pacific. The planktonic record exhibits millennial‐scale sea surface temperature (SST) oscillations over the Holocene of ~0.5°C while the benthic δ18Oc document ~0.10‰ millennial‐scale changes of Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW), a water mass which outcrops in the Southern Ocean. Solar forcing as an explanation for millennial‐scale SST variability requires (1) a large climate sensitivity and (2) a long 400 year delayed response, suggesting that if solar forcing is the cause of the variability, it would need to be considerably amplified by processes within the climate system at least at the core location. We also explore …

Date

2014

Authors

D Khider, CS Jackson, LD Stott

Journal

Paleoceanography

Volume

29

Issue

3

Pages

143-159