Southern Hemisphere high-resolution palaeoclimate records of the last 2000 years

Neukom, Raphael; Gergis, Joëlle (2012). Southern Hemisphere high-resolution palaeoclimate records of the last 2000 years. Holocene, 22(5), pp. 501-524. Sage 10.1177/0959683611427335

[img] Text
Neukom_Gergis_2012.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (6MB)

This study presents a comprehensive assessment of high-resolution Southern Hemisphere (SH) paleoarchives covering the last 2000 years. We identified 174 monthly to annually resolved climate proxy (tree ring, coral, ice core, documentary, speleothem and sedimentary) records from the Hemisphere. We assess the interannual and decadal sensitivity of each proxy record to large-scale circulation indices from the Pacific, Indian and Southern Ocean regions over the twentieth century. We then analyse the potential of this newly expanded palaeoclimate network to collectively represent predictands (sea surface temperature, sea level pressure, surface air temperature and precipitation) commonly used in climate reconstructions. The key dynamical centres-of-action of the equatorial Indo-Pacific are well captured by the palaeoclimate network, indicating that there is considerable reconstruction potential in this region, particularly in the post AD 1600 period when a number of long coral records are available. Current spatiotemporal gaps in data coverage and regions where significant potential for future proxy collection exists are discussed. We then highlight the need for new and extended records from key dynamical regions of the Southern Hemisphere. Although large-scale climate field reconstructions for the SH are in their infancy, we report that excellent progress in the development of regional proxies now makes plausible estimates of continental- to hemispheric-scale climate variations possible.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

UniBE Contributor:

Neukom, Raphael Andreas

Subjects:

500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology

ISSN:

0959-6836

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Raphael Andreas Neukom

Date Deposited:

14 Dec 2015 08:50

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/0959683611427335

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.73677

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/73677

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback