TY - JOUR A1 - Rehfeld, Kira A1 - Münch, Thomas A1 - Ho, Sze Ling A1 - Laepple, Thomas T1 - Global patterns of declining temperature variability from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene JF - Nature : the international weekly journal of science N2 - Changes in climate variability are as important for society to address as are changes in mean climate(1). Contrasting temperature variability during the Last Glacial Maximum and the Holocene can provide insights into the relationship between the mean state of the climate and its variability(2,3). However, although glacial-interglacial changes in variability have been quantified for Greenland(2), a global view remains elusive. Here we use a network of marine and terrestrial temperature proxies to show that temperature variability decreased globally by a factor of four as the climate warmed by 3-8 degrees Celsius from the Last Glacial Maximum (around 21,000 years ago) to the Holocene epoch (the past 11,500 years). This decrease had a clear zonal pattern, with little change in the tropics (by a factor of only 1.6-2.8) and greater change in the mid-latitudes of both hemispheres (by a factor of 3.3-14). By contrast, Greenland ice-core records show a reduction in temperature variability by a factor of 73, suggesting influences beyond local temperature or a decoupling of atmospheric and global surface temperature variability for Greenland. The overall pattern of reduced variability can be explained by changes in the meridional temperature gradient, a mechanism that points to further decreases in temperature variability in a warmer future. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25454 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 554 IS - 7692 SP - 356 EP - 359 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zuhr, Alexandra M. A1 - Dolman, Andrew M. A1 - Ho, Sze Ling A1 - Groeneveld, Jeroen A1 - Loewemark, Ludvig A1 - Grotheer, Hendrik A1 - Su, Chih-Chieh A1 - Laepple, Thomas T1 - Age-heterogeneity in marine sediments revealed by three-dimensional high-resolution radiocarbon measurements JF - Frontiers in Earth Science N2 - Marine sedimentary archives are routinely used to reconstruct past environmental changes. In many cases, bioturbation and sedimentary mixing affect the proxy time-series and the age-depth relationship. While idealized models of bioturbation exist, they usually assume homogeneous mixing, thus that a single sample is representative for the sediment layer it is sampled from. However, it is largely unknown to which extent this assumption holds for sediments used for paleoclimate reconstructions. To shed light on 1) the age-depth relationship and its full uncertainty, 2) the magnitude of mixing processes affecting the downcore proxy variations, and 3) the representativity of the discrete sample for the sediment layer, we designed and performed a case study on South China Sea sediment material which was collected using a box corer and which covers the last glacial cycle. Using the radiocarbon content of foraminiferal tests as a tracer of time, we characterize the spatial age-heterogeneity of sediments in a three-dimensional setup. In total, 118 radiocarbon measurements were performed on defined small- and large-volume bulk samples ( similar to 200 specimens each) to investigate the horizontal heterogeneity of the sediment. Additionally, replicated measurements on small numbers of specimens (10 x 5 specimens) were performed to assess the heterogeneity within a sample volume. Visual assessment of X-ray images and a quantitative assessment of the mixing strength show typical mixing from bioturbation corresponding to around 10 cm mixing depth. Notably, our 3D radiocarbon distribution reveals that the horizontal heterogeneity (up to 1,250 years), contributing to the age uncertainty, is several times larger than the typically assumed radiocarbon based age-model error (single errors up to 250 years). Furthermore, the assumption of a perfectly bioturbated layer with no mixing underneath is not met. Our analysis further demonstrates that the age-heterogeneity might be a function of sample size; smaller samples might contain single features from the incomplete mixing and are thus less representative than larger samples. We provide suggestions for future studies, optimal sampling strategies for quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions and realistic uncertainty in age models, as well as discuss possible implications for the interpretation of paleoclimate records. KW - paleoceanography KW - radiocarbon KW - age-heterogeneity KW - marine sediments KW - planktonic foraminifera KW - bioturbation KW - agemodeling KW - South China Sea Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.871902 SN - 2296-6463 VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER -