Holocene elephant seal distribution implies warmer-than-present climate in the Ross Sea.
We show that southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) colonies existed proximate to the Ross Ice Shelf during the Holocene, well south of their core sub-Antarctic breeding and molting grounds. We propose that this was due to warming (including a previously unrecognized period from approximately 1,100 to 2,300 (14)C yr B.P.) that decreased coastal sea ice and allowed penetration of warmer-than-present climate conditions into the Ross Embayment. If, as proposed in the literature, the ice shelf survived this period, it would have been exposed to environments substantially warmer than present.
Hall
B L
BL
*Climate Change Institute and brendah@maine.edu.|Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469.
Hoelzel
A R
AR
School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3HP, United Kingdom.
Baroni
C
C
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Università di Pisa and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 56126 Pisa, Italy; and.
Denton
G H
GH
*Climate Change Institute and debbies@maine.edu.|Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469.
Le Boeuf
B J
BJ
**Institute of Marine Studies and Department of Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
Overturf
B
B
*Climate Change Institute and.
Töpf
A L
AL
School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3HP, United Kingdom.
D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D002980:Climate; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010802:Phylogeny; D011156:Population Density; D046048:Seals, Earless / Q000502:physiology*; D046429:Spheniscidae; D013696:Temperature