Ocean currents generate large footprints in marine palaeoclimate proxies

Erik van Sebille (), Paolo Scussolini, Jonathan V. Durgadoo, Frank J. C. Peeters, Arne Biastoch, Wilbert Weijer, Chris Turney, Claire B. Paris and Rainer Zahn
Additional contact information
Erik van Sebille: ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and Climate Change Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales
Paolo Scussolini: Earth and Climate Cluster, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University
Jonathan V. Durgadoo: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Frank J. C. Peeters: Earth and Climate Cluster, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University
Arne Biastoch: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Wilbert Weijer: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Chris Turney: ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and Climate Change Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales
Claire B. Paris: Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami
Rainer Zahn: Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA)

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Fossils of marine microorganisms such as planktic foraminifera are among the cornerstones of palaeoclimatological studies. It is often assumed that the proxies derived from their shells represent ocean conditions above the location where they were deposited. Planktic foraminifera, however, are carried by ocean currents and, depending on the life traits of the species, potentially incorporate distant ocean conditions. Here we use high-resolution ocean models to assess the footprint of planktic foraminifera and validate our method with proxy analyses from two locations. Results show that foraminifera, and thus recorded palaeoclimatic conditions, may originate from areas up to several thousands of kilometres away, reflecting an ocean state significantly different from the core site. In the eastern equatorial regions and the western boundary current extensions, the offset may reach 1.5 °C for species living for a month and 3.0 °C for longer-living species. Oceanic transport hence appears to be a crucial aspect in the interpretation of proxy signals.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7521 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7521

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7521

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().