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PlioVAR marine synthesis paper

PlioVAR marine synthesis paper

A new paper "Lessons from a high-CO2 world: an ocean view from  ∼ 3 million years ago" from the former PAGES' working group Pliocene climate variability over glacial-interglacial timescales (PlioVAR) was published in Climate of the Past today.

Authors, led by Erin McClymont, examine a single interglacial during the late Pliocene (KM5c, ca. 3.205±0.01 Ma) when atmospheric CO2 exceeded pre-industrial concentrations, but were similar to today and to the lowest emission scenarios for this century.

As orbital forcing and continental configurations were almost identical to today, they are able to focus on equilibrium climate system response to modern and near-future CO2. Using proxy data from 32 sites, they demonstrate that global mean sea-surface temperatures were warmer than pre-industrial values, by ∼2.3 degrees C for the combined proxy data (foraminifera Mg∕Ca and alkenones), or by ∼3.2–3.4 degrees C (alkenones only).

Their results demonstrate that even under low-CO2 emission scenarios, surface ocean warming may be expected to exceed model projections and will be accentuated in the higher latitudes.

Access the paper here.

Find out more about the work of PlioVAR here.