Ice and Sediment Samples Show Glacial and Interglacial Temperature Variability
Scientists and members of the Polarstern crew lift a box corer on board. The box corer was used to recover a sediment core from the ocean floor of the East Greenland Shelf. Photo credit: AWI/Maciej Telesinski.
Feb. 5, 2018—On the basis of a unique global comparison of data from core samples extracted from the ocean floor and the polar ice sheets, researchers at the Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI) have demonstrated that, though climate changes have indeed decreased around the globe from glacial to interglacial periods, the difference is by no means as pronounced as previously assumed. Until now, it was believed that glacial periods were characterized by extreme temperature variability, while interglacial periods were relatively stable. The team has for the first time gathered and compared data from diverse climate archives and a total of 99 research sites. Their research is published online in the journal Nature.
Read more at the Alfred-Wegener Institute.
Original Publication:
Kira Rehfeld, Thomas Münch, Sze Ling Ho and Thomas Laepple: “Global patterns of declining temperature variability from Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene.” (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature25454).
All images copyright AWI.