The Holocene temperature conundrum
University of Wisconsin–Madison · Peking University · +12 more institutions
Abstract
A recent temperature reconstruction of global annual temperature shows Early Holocene warmth followed by a cooling trend through the Middle to Late Holocene [Marcott SA, et al., 2013, Science 339(6124):1198-1201]. This global cooling is puzzling because it is opposite from the expected and simulated global warming trend due to the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases. Our critical reexamination of this contradiction between the reconstructed cooling and the simulated warming points to potentially significant biases in both the seasonality of the proxy reconstruction and the climate sensitivity of current climate models.
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 12.84
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 33
Authors
10- ZLZhengyu LiuCorresponding
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Peking University
- JZJiang Zhu
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- YRYair Rosenthal
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- XZXu Zhang
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
- BLBette L. Otto‐Bliesner
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory
Topics & keywords
- Holocene
- Climatology
- Global temperature
- Proxy (statistics)
- Global warming
- Climate sensitivity
- Environmental science
- Paleoclimatology
- Life below water