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Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch

Nature volume 429, pages 263–267 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The Earth's climate has undergone a global transition over the past four million years, from warm conditions with global surface temperatures about 3 °C warmer than today, smaller ice sheets and higher sea levels to the current cooler conditions. Tectonic changes and their influence on ocean heat transport have been suggested as forcing factors for that transition, including the onset of significant Northern Hemisphere glaciation ∼2.75 million years ago, but the ultimate causes for the climatic changes are still under debate. Here we compare climate records from high latitudes, subtropical regions and the tropics, indicating that the onset of large glacial/interglacial cycles did not coincide with a specific climate reorganization event at lower latitudes. The regional differences in the timing of cooling imply that global cooling was a gradual process, rather than the response to a single threshold or episodic event as previously suggested. We also find that high-latitude climate sensitivity to variations in solar heating increased gradually, culminating after cool tropical and subtropical upwelling conditions were established two million years ago. Our results suggest that mean low-latitude climate conditions can significantly influence global climate feedbacks.

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Figure 1: Evolution of high-latitude climate and sensitivity (adapted from ref. 44).
Figure 2: Comparison of climate evolution in different regions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. Anderson, M. Cane, B. Chaisson, P. Dekens, G. Haug, K. Lawrence, P. Molnar and G. Philander, for suggestions that influenced this work. M. Flower, Z. Irons and K. Ziegler helped with the data generation. G. Haug and P. deMenocal supplied their data for Fig. 2. The National Science Foundation funded this work. Samples were provided by the Ocean Drilling Program. Authors' contributions  D.H.A. conceived of the ideas presented in Fig. 1. M.L. and A.O.L. were responsible for carbonate and organic carbon analyses. All authors contributed scientific ideas. A.C.R. was primarily responsible for generating isotope data on ODP Site 1014 and constructing age model, formulating the main conclusions, and writing the paper.

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Author notes

  1. Dyke H. Andreasen

    Present address: Rutgers University, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08904, USA

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Ana Christina Ravelo & Michael W. Wara

  2. Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA

    Dyke H. Andreasen

  3. Center for Geophysical Investigation of the Shallow Subsurface, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Idaho, 83725, Boise, USA

    Mitchell Lyle & Annette Olivarez Lyle

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Correspondence to Ana Christina Ravelo.

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Ravelo, A., Andreasen, D., Lyle, M. et al. Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch. Nature 429, 263–267 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02567

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