Abrupt Tropical Vegetation Response to Rapid Climate Changes

Konrad A Hughen; Timothy I. Eglinton; Li Xu; Matthew Makou

doi:10.1126/science.1092995

Abstract

Identifying leads and lags between high- and low-latitude abrupt climate shifts is needed to understand where and how such events were triggered. Vascular plant biomarkers preserved in Cariaco basin sediments reveal rapid vegetation changes in northern South America during the last deglaciation, 15,000 to 10,000 years ago. Comparing the biomarker records to climate proxies from the same sediment core provides a precise measure of the relative timing of changes in different regions. Abrupt deglacial climate shifts in tropical and high-latitude North Atlantic regions were synchronous, whereas changes in tropical vegetation consistently lagged climate shifts by several decades.

Keywords

DeglaciationVegetation (pathology)Tropical AtlanticClimate changeClimatologyTropicsLatitudeTropical monsoon climateAbrupt climate changeTropical climateTropical vegetationPaleoclimatologyPhysical geographyEnvironmental scienceStructural basinGeologyHoloceneOceanographyGlobal warmingEcologySea surface temperatureGeographyEffects of global warmingPaleontologyBiology

Affiliated Institutions

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution US

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Publication Info

Year: 2004
Type: article
Volume: 304
Issue: 5679
Pages: 1955-1959
Citations: 274
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                
                                    Konrad A Hughen, 
                                
                                    Timothy I. Eglinton, 
                                
                                    Li Xu
                                
                                et al.
                            
                            (2004). 
                            Abrupt Tropical Vegetation Response to Rapid Climate Changes. 
                            Science
                            , 304
                            (5679)
                            , 1955-1959.
                            https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1092995
                        

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1126/science.1092995