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The Holocene temperature conundrum.

ABSTRACT: A recent temperature reconstruction of global annual temperature shows Early Holocene warmth followed by a cooling trend through the Middle to Late Holocene [Marcott SA, et al., 2013, Science 339(6124):1198-1201]. This global cooling is puzzling because it is opposite from the expected and simulated global warming trend due to the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases. Our critical reexamination of this contradiction between the reconstructed cooling and the simulated warming points to potentially significant biases in both the seasonality of the proxy reconstruction and the climate sensitivity of current climate models.

SUBMITTER: Liu Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4151775 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Holocene temperature conundrum.

Liu Zhengyu Z Zhu Jiang J Rosenthal Yair Y Zhang Xu X Otto-Bliesner Bette L BL Timmermann Axel A Smith Robin S RS Lohmann Gerrit G Zheng Weipeng W Elison Timm Oliver O

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140811 34

A recent temperature reconstruction of global annual temperature shows Early Holocene warmth followed by a cooling trend through the Middle to Late Holocene [Marcott SA, et al., 2013, Science 339(6124):1198-1201]. This global cooling is puzzling because it is opposite from the expected and simulated global warming trend due to the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases. Our critical reexamination of this contradiction between the reconstructed cooling and the simulated war ...[more]

PMID: 25114253

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