Evolution of Ocean Temperature and Ice Volume Through the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition

Abstract

Cycling Down: The Mid-Pleistocene Transition, which lasted from approximately 1.25 million to 700 thousand years ago, was a period during which the dominant periodicity of Earth's climate cycles inexplicably changed from 41 thousand to 100 thousand years. This change is clearly apparent in the oxygen isotopic composition of many calcifying marine organisms, but changes in both ice volume and temperature affect the signal, and so exactly what the signal means has remained unclear. Elderfield et al. (p. 704 ; see the Perspective by Clark ) separated these two effects by measuring both the oxygen isotopic makeup and the Mg/Ca (a proxy that reflects changes in temperature only) of certain benthic foraminifera. The findings reveal the contributions of ice volume and temperature to glacial cycles, suggest when and why the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition occurred, and clarify how carbon is lost from the ocean-atmosphere during deglaciations but also changes because of ocean circulation.