Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Published Online May 20, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1092995

Reports

Submitted on October 27, 2003
Accepted on May 11, 2004

Abrupt Tropical Vegetation Response to Rapid Climate Changes

Konrad A. Hughen 1*, Timothy I. Eglinton 1, Li Xu 2, Matthew Makou 2

1 Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Konrad A. Hughen , E-mail: khughen{at}whoi.edu

Identifying leads and lags between high- and low-latitude abrupt climate shifts is needed to understand where and how such events were triggered. Vascular plant biomarkers preserved in Cariaco basin sediments reveal rapid vegetation changes in northern South America during the last deglaciation, 15,000 to 10,000 years ago. Comparing the biomarker records to climate proxies from the same sediment core provides a precise measure of the relative timing of changes in different regions. Abrupt deglacial climate shifts in tropical and high-latitude North Atlantic regions were synchronous, whereas changes in tropical vegetation consistently lagged climate shifts by several decades.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Absence of geochemical evidence for an impact event at the Bolling-Allerod/Younger Dryas transition.
F. S. Paquay, S. Goderis, G. Ravizza, F. Vanhaeck, M. Boyd, T. A. Surovell, V. T. Holliday, C. V. Haynes Jr., and P. Claeys (2009)
PNAS 106, 21505-21510
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Facing future climate change: is the past relevant?.
L. Skinner (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc A 366, 4627-4645
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A biophysical perspective on dispersal and the geography of evolution in marine and terrestrial systems.
M. N Dawson and W. M Hamner (2008)
J R Soc Interface 5, 135-150
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Constraining past global tropospheric methane budgets with carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios in ice.
M. Whiticar and H. Schaefer (2007)
Phil Trans R Soc A 365, 1793-1828
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paratropical floral extinction in the Late Palaeocene-Early Eocene.
G. J. Harrington and C. A. Jaramillo (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 323-332
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ice record of delta13C for atmospheric CH4 across the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition..
H. Schaefer, M. J. Whiticar, E. J. Brook, V. V. Petrenko, D. F. Ferretti, and J. P. Severinghaus (2006)
Science 313, 1109-1112
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Biogeographic evolution of Madagascar's microendemic biota..
L. Wilme, S. M. Goodman, and J. U. Ganzhorn (2006)
Science 312, 1063-1065
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Asynchronous Terrestrial and Marine Signals of Climate Change During Heinrich Events.
T. C. Jennerjahn, V. Ittekkot, H. W. Arz, H. Behling, J. Patzold, and G. Wefer (2004)
Science 306, 2236-2239
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)