Herbert et al. (Research Articles, 6 July 2001, p. 71) found that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the area now dominated by the California Current warmed 10,000 to 15,000 years before deglaciation at the past five glacial maxima but did not rise before deglaciation south of the modern California Current front. Thus, they concluded, early warming in this area (including the trend recorded in vein calcite at Devils Hole, Nevada) likely represented not a global signal but a regional one tied to weakening of the California Current due to growth of the Laurentide ice sheet, and that the Devils Hole record "does not pose a fundamental challenge to the orbital ('Milankovich') theory of the ice ages." In a comment, Winograd, citing evidence of pre-deglaciation warming across a wide range of latitudes, asserts that the "intriguing notion linking California Current SSTs and the Laurentide ice sheet" is "open to question, as is [the] assertion" that the work resolves internal inconsistencies in the Milankovich theory. Herbert et al., in response, offer several arguments in support of their "basic conclusion that regional climate processes are important and are expressed in the preserved paleoclimate record." The full text of these comments can be seen at
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/296/5565/7a
