This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2018) |
The Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) was a warm period in the first half of the Holocene epoch, that occurred in the interval roughly 9,500 to 5,500 years BP, [1] with a thermal maximum around 8000 years BP. It has also been known by many other names, such as Altithermal, Climatic Optimum, Holocene Megathermal, Holocene Optimum, Holocene Thermal Maximum, Holocene global thermal maximum, Hypsithermal, and Mid-Holocene Warm Period.
The warm period was followed by a gradual decline, of about 0.1 to 0.3 °C per millennium, until about two centuries ago. However, on a sub-millennial scale, there were regional warm periods superimposed on this decline. [2] [3] [4]
The HCO was approximately 4.9 °C warmer than the Last Glacial Maximum. [5] A study in 2020 estimated that the average global temperature during the warmest 200 year period of the HCO, around 6,500 years ago, was around 0.7 °C warmer than the mean for nineteenth century AD, immediately before the Industrial Revolution, and 0.3 °C cooler than the average for 2011-2019. [6] The 2021 IPCC report expressed medium confidence that temperatures in the last decade are higher than they were in the Mid-Holocene Warm Period. [7] Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are simulated to be warmer than present average during the summers, but the tropics and parts of the Southern Hemisphere were colder than average. [8] The average temperature change appears to have declined rapidly with latitude and so essentially no change in mean temperature is reported at low and middle latitudes. Tropical reefs tend to show temperature increases of less than 1 °C. The tropical ocean surface at the Great Barrier Reef about 5350 years ago was 1 °C warmer and enriched in 18O by 0.5 per mil relative to modern seawater. [9]
Temperatures during the HCO were higher than in the present by around 6 °C in Svalbard, near the North Pole. [10]
Of 140 sites across the western Arctic, there is clear evidence for conditions that were warmer than now at 120 sites. At 16 sites for which quantitative estimates have been obtained, local temperatures were on average 1.6±0.8 °C higher during the optimum than now. Northwestern North America reached peak warmth first, from 11,000 to 9,000 years ago, but the Laurentide Ice Sheet still chilled eastern Canada. Northeastern North America experienced peak warming 4,000 years later. Along the Arctic Coastal Plain in Alaska, there are indications of summer temperatures 2–3 °C warmer than now. [11] Research indicates that the Arctic had less sea ice than now. [12] The Greenland Ice Sheet thinned, particularly at its margins. [13] In addition to being warmer, Arctic Alaska also became wetter. [14]
Northwestern Europe experienced warming, but there was cooling in Southern Europe. [15] In the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, forest cover reached its peak between 9,760 and 7,360 years BP as a result of high moisture availability and warm temperatures during the HCO. [16] In Central Europe, the HCO was when human impact on the environment first became clearly detectable in sedimentological records, [17] with the portion of the HCO from 9,000 to 7,500 BP being associated with minimal human impact and environmental stability, the portion from 7,500 to 6,300 BP with human impact only observed in pollen records, and the portion after 6,300 BP with substantial human influence on the environment. [18]
In the Middle East, the HCO was associated with frost-free winters and abundant Pistacia savannas. It was during this interval that the domestication of cereals and Neolithic population growth occurred in the region. [19]
The onset of the HCO in the southern Ural Mountains was simultaneous with that in Northern Europe, while its termination occurred between 6,300 and 5,100 BP. [20] Winter warming of 3 to 9 °C and summer warming of 2 to 6 °C occurred in northern central Siberia. [21]
The HCO was highly asynchronous in Central and East Asia, [22] though it at least occurred contemporaneously in the Loess Plateau, the Inner Mongolian Plateau, and Xinjiang. [23] As a result of rising sea levels and decay of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere, the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) rain belt expanded to the northwest, penetrating deep into the Asian interior. [24] The EASM, being significantly weaker before and after the HCO, peaked in strength during this interval, [25] though the exact timing of its maximum intensity varied by region; [26] intensified westerlies occasionally caused dry spells in China during the HCO. [27] Current desert regions of Central Asia were extensively forested because of higher rainfall, and the warm temperate forest belts in China and Japan were extended northwards. [28] In the Yarlung Tsangpo valley of southern Tibet, precipitation was up to twice as high as it is today during the middle Holocene. [29] In the Huai River basin, the HCO began 9,100 to 8,000 BP. [30] Pollen records from Lake Tai in Jiangsu, China shed light on increased summer precipitation and a warmer and wetter overall climate in the region. [31] The stability of the Middle Holocene climate in China fostered the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the region. [32] In the Korean Peninsula, arboreal pollen records the HCO as occurring from 8,900 to 4,400 BP, with its core period being 7,600 to 4,800 BP. [33] Sea levels in the Sea of Japan were 2-6 metres higher than in the present, with sea surface temperatures being 1-2 °C higher. The East Korea Warm Current reached as far as Primorye and pushed cold water off of the cooler Primorsky Current to the northeast. The Tsushima Current warmed the northern shores of Hokkaido penetrated into the Sea of Okhotsk. [34] In the northern South China Sea, the HCO was associated with colder winters due to a stronger East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM), causing frequent coral die-offs. [35]
In the Indian Subcontinent, the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) heavily intensified, creating a hot and wet climate in India along with high sea levels. [36]
Relative sea level in the Spermonde Archipelago was approximately 0.5 metres higher than it is today. [37] [38] Sedimentary infill of lagoons was retarded by the sea level highstand and accelerated after the HCO, when sea levels dropped. [39]
West African sediments additionally record the African humid period, an interval between 16,000 and 6,000 years ago during which Africa was much wetter than now. That was caused by a strengthening of the African monsoon by changes in summer radiation, which resulted from long-term variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The "Green Sahara" was dotted with numerous lakes, containing typical African lake crocodile and hippopotamus fauna. A curious discovery from the marine sediments is that the transitions into and out of the wet period occurred within decades, not the previously-thought extended periods. [40] It is hypothesized that humans played a role in altering the vegetation structure of North Africa at some point after 8,000 years ago by introducing domesticated animals, which contributed to the rapid transition to the arid conditions that are now found in many locations in the Sahara. [41] Further south, in Central Africa, the savannas that make up the coastal lowlands of the Congo River drainage basin in the present were entirely absent. [42] Southwestern Africa experienced increased humidity during the HCO. [43]
Northwestern Patagonia, in a region known as the Arid Diagonal, was significantly drier during the Early and Middle Holocene, with the region becoming more humid during the Late Holocene following the end of the HCO. [44]
In the far Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand and Antarctica), the warmest period during the Holocene appears to have been roughly 10,500 to 8,000 years ago, immediately after the end of the last ice age. [45] [46] The Amery Ice Shelf retreated approximately 80 kilometres landward during this warm interval. [47] By 6,000 years ago, which is normally associated with the Holocene Climatic Optimum in the Northern Hemisphere, those regions had reached temperatures similar to today, and they did not participate in the temperature changes of the north. However, some authors have used the term "Holocene Climatic Optimum" to describe the earlier southern warm period as well; typically, the term "Early Holocene Climatic Optimum" is used for the Southern Hemisphere warm interval. [48] [49]
In New Zealand, the HCO was associated with a 2 °C temperature gradient across the subtropical front (STF), a sharp contrast with the 6 °C observed today. Westerly winds in New Zealand were reduced. [50]
A comparison of the delta profiles at Byrd Station, West Antarctica (2164 m ice core recovered, 1968), and Camp Century, Northwest Greenland, shows the post-glacial climatic optimum. [51] Points of correlation indicate that in both locations, the HCO (post-glacial climatic optimum) probably occurred at the same time. A similar comparison is evident between the Dye 3 1979 and the Camp Century 1963 cores regarding this period. [51]
The Hans Tausen Ice Cap, in Peary Land (northern Greenland), was drilled in 1977, with a new deep drill to 325 m. The ice core contained distinct melt layers all the way to the bedrock. That indicates that Hans Tausen Iskappe contains no ice from the last glaciation and so the world's northernmost ice cap melted away during the post-glacial climatic optimum and was rebuilt when the climate cooled some 4000 years ago. [51]
From the delta-profile, the Renland ice cap in the Scoresby Sound has always been separated from the inland ice, but all of the delta-leaps revealed in the Camp Century 1963 core recurred in the Renland 1985 ice core. [51] The Renland ice core from East Greenland apparently covers a full glacial cycle from the Holocene into the previous Eemian interglacial. The Renland ice core is 325 m long. [52]
Although the depths are different, the GRIP and NGRIP cores also contain the climatic optimum at very similar times. [51]
The climatic event was probably a result of predictable changes in the Earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles) and a continuation of changes that caused the end of the last glacial period.[ citation needed ]
The effect would have had the maximum heating of the Northern Hemisphere 9,000 years ago, when the axial tilt was 24° and the nearest approach to the Sun (perihelion) was during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. The calculated Milankovitch Forcing would have provided 0.2% more solar radiation (+40 W/m2) to the Northern Hemisphere in summer, which tended to cause more heating. There seems to have been the predicted southward shift in the global band of thunderstorms, the Intertropical Convergence Zone.[ citation needed ]
However, orbital forcing would predict maximum climate response several thousand years earlier than those observed in the Northern Hemisphere. The delay may be a result of the continuing changes in climate, as the Earth emerged from the last glacial period and related to ice–albedo feedback. Different sites often show climate changes at somewhat different times and lasting for different durations. At some locations, climate changes may have begun as early as 11,000 years ago or have persisted until 4,000 years ago. As noted above, the warmest interval in the far south significantly preceded warming in the north.[ citation needed ]
Significant temperature changes do not appear to have occurred at most low-latitude sites, but other climate changes have been reported, such as significantly wetter conditions in Africa, Australia and Japan and desert-like conditions in the Midwestern United States. Areas around the Amazon show temperature increases and drier conditions. [53]
The Holocene is the current geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Quaternary period. The Holocene is an interglacial period within the ongoing glacial cycles of the Quaternary, and is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 1.
Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. Climate change may refer to any time in Earth's history, but the term is now commonly used to describe contemporary climate change, often popularly referred to as global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities.
The Younger Dryas (YD) was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the North Atlantic Ocean cooled and annual air temperatures decreased by ~3 °C (5.4 °F) over North America, 2–6 °C (3.6–10.8 °F) in Europe and up to 10 °C (18 °F) in Greenland, in a few decades. Cooling in Greenland was particularly rapid, taking place over just 3 years or less. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere experienced warming. This period ended as rapidly as it began, with dramatic warming over ~50 years, which transitioned the Earth from the glacial Pleistocene epoch into the current Holocene.
The Last Glacial Period (LGP), also known as the Last glacial cycle, occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the beginning of the Holocene, c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago, and thus corresponds to most of the timespan of the Late Pleistocene.
The Last Interglacial, also known as the Eemian, was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period. It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e. It was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age, the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day. During the Last Interglacial, the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million. The Last Interglacial was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer than the contemporary Holocene interglacial, with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than the Holocene interglacial.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Europe, and Asia and profoundly affected Earth's climate by causing a major expansion of deserts, along with a large drop in sea levels.
The mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. During glacial periods in the later Pleistocene it stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, across Eurasia to North America, through Beringia and northwest Canada; from north-to-south, the steppe reached from the Arctic southward to southern Europe, Central Asia and northern China. The mammoth steppe was cold and dry, and relatively featureless, though climate, topography, and geography varied considerably throughout. Certain areas of the biome—such as coastal areas—had wetter and milder climates than others. Some areas featured rivers which, through erosion, naturally created gorges, gulleys, or small glens. The continual glacial recession and advancement over millennia contributed more to the formation of larger valleys and different geographical features. Overall, however, the steppe is known to be flat and expansive grassland. The vegetation was dominated by palatable, high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs.
An interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,700 years ago.
The Older Dryas was a stadial (cold) period between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials, about 14,000 years Before Present, towards the end of the Pleistocene. Its date range is not well defined, with estimates varying by 400 years, but its duration is agreed to have been around two centuries.
The Oldest Dryas is a biostratigraphic subdivision layer corresponding to a relatively abrupt climatic cooling event, or stadial, which occurred during the last glacial retreat. The time period to which the layer corresponds is poorly defined and varies between regions, but it is generally dated as starting at 18.5–17 thousand years (ka) before present (BP) and ending 15–14 ka BP. As with the Younger and Older Dryas events, the stratigraphic layer is marked by abundance of the pollen and other remains of Dryas octopetala, an indicator species that colonizes arctic-alpine regions. The termination of the Oldest Dryas is marked by an abrupt oxygen isotope excursion, which has been observed at many sites in the Alps that correspond to this interval of time.
The neoglaciation describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth's climate during the Holocene, following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent glacial period. Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum, the warmest point in the Earth's climate during the current interglacial stage, excluding the global warming-induced temperature increase starting in the 20th century. The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning: local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler conditions.
In climatology, the 8.2 kiloyear event was a rapid drop in global temperatures that occurred around 8,200 years ago, or approximately 6200 BC, lasting between two and four centuries. This event marks the beginning of the Northgrippian age within the Holocene epoch. While this cooling phase was not as intense as the earlier Younger Dryas period that occurred just before the Holocene began, it was still significant. During the 8.2 kiloyear event, atmospheric methane levels dropped by 80 parts per billion, a 15% reduction, reflecting a broad cooling and drying trend across the Northern Hemisphere.
The Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) was a climatic event of intense atmospheric and oceanic cooling across the southern hemisphere (>40°S) between 14,700 and 13,000 years before present (BP) that interrupted the most recent deglacial climate warming. This cooling event was initially well noted in Antarctic ice core records. Soon after, evidence from sediment cores and glacial advances from land masses and Oceanic sectors south of 40°S expanded the region of this climate cooling event. The ACR illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs.
The Subboreal is a climatic period, immediately before the present one, of the Holocene. It lasted from 3710 to 450 BCE.
The Subatlantic is the current climatic age of the Holocene epoch. It started about 2,500 years BP and is still ongoing. Its average temperatures are slightly lower than during the preceding Subboreal and Atlantic. During its course, the temperature underwent several oscillations, which had a strong influence on fauna and flora and thus indirectly on the evolution of human civilizations. With intensifying industrialisation, human society started to stress the natural climatic cycles with increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Deglaciation is the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages, to warm interglacials, characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume. Thus, it refers to the retreat of a glacier, an ice sheet or frozen surface layer, and the resulting exposure of the Earth's surface. The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier. After the Last Glacial Maximum, the last deglaciation begun, which lasted until the early Holocene. Around much of Earth, deglaciation during the last 100 years has been accelerating as a result of climate change, partly brought on by anthropogenic changes to greenhouse gases.
The early Holocene sea level rise (EHSLR) was a significant jump in sea level by about 60 m (197 ft) during the early Holocene, between about 12,000 and 7,000 years ago, spanning the Eurasian Mesolithic. The rapid rise in sea level and associated climate change, notably the 8.2 ka cooling event , and the loss of coastal land favoured by early farmers, may have contributed to the spread of the Neolithic Revolution to Europe in its Neolithic period.
The Late Cenozoic Ice Age, or Antarctic Glaciation, began 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary and is ongoing. It is Earth's current ice age or icehouse period. Its beginning is marked by the formation of the Antarctic ice sheets.
Changing climate conditions are amplified in polar regions and northern high-latitude areas are projected to warm at twice the rate of the global average. These modifications result in ecosystem interactions and feedbacks that can augment or mitigate climatic changes. These interactions may have been important through the large climate fluctuations since the glacial period. Therefore it is useful to review the past dynamics of vegetation and climate to place recent observed changes in the Arctic into context. This article focuses on northern Alaska where there has been much research on this theme.
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from c. 950 to c. 1250. Climate proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions, which indicate that the MWP was not a globally uniform event. Some refer to the MWP as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly to emphasize that climatic effects other than temperature were also important.
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