Pliocene reversal of late Neogene aridification

JMK Sniderman; JD Woodhead; J Hellstrom; GJ Jordan; RN Drysdale; JJ Tyler; N Porch

Journal article

Pliocene reversal of late Neogene aridification

JMK Sniderman, JD Woodhead, J Hellstrom, GJ Jordan, RN Drysdale, JJ Tyler, N Porch

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1520188113

Abstract

The Pliocene epoch (5.3-2.6Ma) represents the most recent geological interval in which global temperatures were several degrees warmer than today and is therefore considered our best analog for a future anthropogenic greenhouse world. However, our understanding of Pliocene climates is limited by poor age control on existing terrestrial climate archives, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, and by persistent disagreement between paleo-data and models concerning the magnitude of regional warming and/or wetting that occurred in response to increased greenhouse forcing. To address these problems, here we document the evolution of Southern Hemisphere hydroclimate from the latest Miocene to the ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Kale Sniderman Author

Jon Woodhead Author

John Hellstrom Author

Russell Drysdale Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank J. Elith for discussions about bioclimatic modeling; C. D. Hillenbrand for data from Ocean Drilling Program 1095; D. Cantrill, C. Gallagher, W. Gebert, and P. Milne for access to vouchered specimens at the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL); and three reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. This work would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of Paul Devine (deceased) in exploring Nullarbor caves. Research was supported by Australian Research Council Grants DE120102530 (to J.M.K.S.), DP130101829 (to J. D. W.), and FT130100801 (to J.H.). GPCC Precipitation data were provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD (Boulder, CO), from their website at www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd.