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Science 25 March 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5717, pp. 1948 - 1952
DOI: 10.1126/science.1104666
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Reports

Cool La Niña During the Warmth of the Pliocene?

R. E. M. Rickaby and P. Halloran

The role of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in greenhouse warming and climate change remains controversial. During the warmth of the early-mid Pliocene, we find evidence for enhanced thermocline tilt and cold upwelling in the equatorial Pacific, consistent with the prevalence of a La Niña–like state, rather than the proposed persistent warm El Niño–like conditions. Our Pliocene paleothermometer supports the idea of a dynamic "ocean thermostat" in which heating of the tropical Pacific leads to a cooling of the east equatorial Pacific and a La Niña–like state, analogous to observations of a transient increasing east-west sea surface temperature gradient in the 20th-century tropical Pacific.

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Palaeoenvironmental significance of carbon- and oxygen-isotope stratigraphy of marine Triassic-Jurassic boundary sections in SW Britain.
C. Korte, S. P. Hesselbo, H. C. Jenkyns, R. E.M. Rickaby, and C. Spotl (2009)
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Introduction. Pliocene climate, processes and problems.
A. M Haywood, H. J Dowsett, P. J Valdes, D. J Lunt, J. E Francis, and B. W Sellwood (2009)
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Mid-Pliocene equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature reconstruction: a multi-proxy perspective.
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El Nino-Southern Oscillation, Pliocene climate and equifinality.
S. G Bonham, A. M Haywood, D. J Lunt, M. Collins, and U. Salzmann (2009)
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Warm-water mollusc assemblages from northern Chile (Mejillones Peninsula): new evidence for permanent El Nino-like conditions during Pliocene warmth?.
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Inaugural Article: Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system.
T. M. Lenton, H. Held, E. Kriegler, J. W. Hall, W. Lucht, S. Rahmstorf, and H. J. Schellnhuber (2008)
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The Pliocene paradox (mechanisms for a permanent El Nino)..
A. V. Fedorov, P. S. Dekens, M. McCarthy, A. C. Ravelo, P. B. deMenocal, M. Barreiro, R. C. Pacanowski, and S. G. Philander (2006)
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Evolution of the eastern tropical Pacific through Plio-Pleistocene glaciation..
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Science 312, 79-83
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Permanent El Nino-Like Conditions During the Pliocene Warm Period.
M. W. Wara, A. C. Ravelo, and M. L. Delaney (2005)
Science 309, 758-761
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