Climate Instability during the Last Interglacial

最后一次间冰期的特点是至少是过去25万年来最高的峰值温度和海平面，这是由于北半球夏季日照增加以及海洋和陆地反馈造成的。虽然不是对未来全球预测的严格类比，但最后一次间冰期为气候变暖时期的气候不稳定提供了宝贵的观测背景。虽然一些海洋和陆地记录表明，在最后一次间冰期期间存在气候不稳定，但年代学上的不确定性使对所报告事件的地方或区域意义的评估复杂化。该项目旨在制作一个“地层学的Rosetta Stone”，将重建的深水和地表水水文与葡萄牙南部边缘同一深海序列中的区域植被变化联系起来；这是连接海洋和陆地记录并追踪千年尺度变异性的关键区域。记录分辨率的提高将使人们能够探测到百年尺度的事件，并确定这些事件是否同时存在于陆地和海洋指标中。最显著的突发性气候事件通常与冰川气候有关，对这些事件的经典解释是，它们是由大量淡水排放到北大西洋引发的。评估和推广这一范例，将过度变暖和冰量减少时期的气候不稳定包括在内，具有特别重要的意义，特别是在未来气候变化的背景下。

The Last Interglacial was characterized by the highest peak temperatures and sea level of at least the past 250,000 years, caused by increased Northern Hemisphere summer insolation and ocean- and land- feedbacks. Though not a strict analogue for future global projections, the Last Interglacial provides an invaluable observational context for climate instability during periods of 'excess' warmth. While a number of marine and terrestrial records suggest the presence of climate instability during the Last Interglacial, chronological uncertainties complicate an assessment of the local or regional significance of reported events. This projects aims to produce a 'stratigraphical Rosetta Stone' linking reconstructions of deep- and surface-water hydrography with regional vegetation change in the same deep-sea sequence from the south Portuguese margin; a key area for linking marine and terrestrial records and tracing millennial-scale variability. The increased resolution of the records will allow the detection of centennial-scale events and establish whether these are represented in both terrestrial and marine proxies. The most prominent abrupt climate events have usually been associated with glacial climates, and the canonical explanation of these events is that they are triggered by massive freshwater discharges into the North Atlantic. Evaluating and extending this paradigm to include climate instability during periods of excess warmth and reduced ice-volume is of particular relevance, especially in the context of future climate change.