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Title: Climate variability, heat distribution, and polar amplification in the warm unipolar “icehouse” of the Oligocene
Abstract. The Oligocene (33.9–23.03 Ma) had warm climates with flattened meridional temperature gradients, while Antarctica retained a significant cryosphere. These may pose imperfect analogues to distant future climate states with unipolar icehouse conditions. Although local and regional climate and environmental reconstructions of Oligocene conditions are available, the community lacks synthesis of regional reconstructions. To provide a comprehensive overview of marine and terrestrial climate and environmental conditions in the Oligocene, and a reconstruction of trends through time, we review marine and terrestrial proxy records and compare these to numerical climate model simulations of the Oligocene. Results, based on the present relatively sparse data, suggest temperatures around the Equator that are similar to modern temperatures. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) show patterns similar to land temperatures, with warm conditions at mid- and high latitudes (∼60–90°), especially in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). Vegetation-based precipitation reconstructions of the Oligocene suggest regionally drier conditions compared to modern times around the Equator. When compared to proxy data, climate model simulations overestimate Oligocene precipitation in most areas, particularly the tropics. Temperatures around the mid- to high latitudes are generally underestimated in models compared to proxy data and tend to overestimate the warming in the tropics. In line with previous proxy-to-model comparisons, we find that models underestimate polar amplification and overestimate the Equator-to-pole temperature gradient suggested from the available proxy data. This further stresses the urgency of solving this widely recorded problem for past warm climates, such as the Oligocene.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1842059
PAR ID:
10557823
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
EGU/Copernicus
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Climate of the Past
Volume:
20
Issue:
7
ISSN:
1814-9332
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1627 to 1657
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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