Premium
California Current System response to late Holocene climate cooling in southern California
Author(s) -
Fisler J.,
Hendy I. L.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl033902
Subject(s) - holocene , oceanography , holocene climatic optimum , geology , subtropics , glacial period , climate change , climatology , paleoclimatology , plankton , physical geography , geography , ecology , paleontology , biology
New Holocene high‐resolution planktonic foraminiferal assemblage data from Santa Barbara Basin, California documents variability in ocean circulation as the California Current System responded to millennial‐scale climate change during late Holocene climatic cooling. Climatic variability increased at 4 ka when a series of extreme cool events (notably at 2.2, 1.5 and 0.8 ka) associated with glacial advance in the Pacific Northwest punctuated the predominantly warm Holocene. Simultaneously high subtropical species abundance suggests increased interannual variability (El Niño frequency/severity) or greater seasonality during the late Holocene. Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages indicate that the magnitudes of climatic shifts were greatest after 1.5 ka during an interval of extreme terrestrial hydrological variability in western North America and that the coolest interval of the Holocene in Santa Barbara Basin was coincident with the Little Ice Age.