title: Pacific Ocean heat content during the past 10,000 years.
abstract: Observed increases in ocean heat content (OHC) and temperature are robust indicators of global warming during the past several decades. We used high-resolution proxy records from sediment cores to extend these observations in the Pacific 10,000 years beyond the instrumental record. We show that water masses linked to North Pacific and Antarctic intermediate waters were warmer by 2.1 ± 0.4°C and 1.5 ± 0.4°C, respectively, during the middle Holocene Thermal Maximum than over the past century. Both water masses were ~0.9°C warmer during the Medieval Warm period than during the Little Ice Age and ~0.65° warmer than in recent decades. Although documented changes in global surface temperatures during the Holocene and Common era are relatively small, the concomitant changes in OHC are large.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Braddock K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Linsley
authors.forename: Delia W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Oppo
mesh_terms: D057232:Global Warming; D006358:Hot Temperature; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D054712:Salinity