The Transient Response of Ice Volume to Orbital Forcing During the Warm Late Pliocene

Examining the nature of ice sheet and sea level response to past episodes of enhanced greenhouse gas forcing may help constrain future sea level change. Here, for the first time, we present the transient nature of ice sheets and sea level during the late Pliocene. The transient ice sheet predictions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2017-10, Vol.44 (20), p.10,486-10,494
Main Authors: Boer, Bas, Haywood, Alan M., Dolan, Aisling M., Hunter, Stephen J., Prescott, Caroline L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antarctica
Boundary conditions
Climate
Climate models
Glaciation
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Greenland
Hemispheres
Ice
Ice sheets
Ice volume
Isotopes
modeling
orbital forcing
Pliocene
Sea level
Sea level changes
Sea level rise
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Summary:Examining the nature of ice sheet and sea level response to past episodes of enhanced greenhouse gas forcing may help constrain future sea level change. Here, for the first time, we present the transient nature of ice sheets and sea level during the late Pliocene. The transient ice sheet predictions are forced by multiple climate snapshots derived from a climate model set up with late Pliocene boundary conditions, forced with different orbital forcing scenarios appropriate to two Marine Isotope Stages (MISs), MIS KM5c, and K1. Our results indicate that during MIS KM5c both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets contributed to sea level rise relative to present and were relatively stable. Insolation forcing between the hemispheres was out of phase during MIS K1 and led to an asynchronous response of ice volume globally. Therefore, when variations of precession were high, inferring the behavior of ice sheets from benthic isotope or sea level records is complex. Key Points Simultaneous simulation of the GrIS and AIS over the warm Pliocene Pliocene time slice MIS KM5c displays limited ice volume fluctuations Asynchronous response in ice volume to orbital forcing during MIS K1
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2017GL073535