Scholarlink

<p>Warming is pushing Earthʼs system towards unfamiliar climate conditions, complicating predictions. Geological archives of past greenhouse climates provide essential tests for models under extreme forcing. We investigate how precipitation responded to extreme warmth during early Palaeogene global warming events (66–47.8 million years ago)—a period considered a possible analogue for worst-case future scenarios. Here we compile global palaeoclimate data and develop a multi-proxy approach that integrates sedimentary proxies—such as plant fossils, ancient soils and river deposits—providing constraints on global precipitation intermittency (seasonal and interannual variability) and intensity (rainfall rate). The data reveal wet or monsoonal polar regions and aridity punctuated by intense rainfall at mid- and low-latitude continental interiors. This hydroclimate shift occurred 3 million years before and persisted 7 million years after the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum—the warmest period of the Cenozoic Era, suggesting that extreme warmth induces nonlinearities in the hydrological cycle’s sensitivity to temperature increase. Polar humidity and mid-latitude aridity further indicate a departure from the expected wet-gets-wetter and dry-gets-drier response. Shifts towards aridity were decoupled from mean annual precipitation and driven by seasonal and interannual precipitation distribution, such as shorter wet-season lengths and longer interannual rainfall recurrence intervals. This highlights the importance of considering precipitation intermittency and intensity, as similar shifts may occur under future warming despite differences in boundary conditions.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

More intermittent mid-latitude precipitation accompanied extreme early Palaeogene warmth

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月22日

查看全文
  • Jacob S. Slawson,
  • Piret Plink-Bjorklund,
  • Thomas Reichler,
  • Daniel Baldassare

摘要

Warming is pushing Earthʼs system towards unfamiliar climate conditions, complicating predictions. Geological archives of past greenhouse climates provide essential tests for models under extreme forcing. We investigate how precipitation responded to extreme warmth during early Palaeogene global warming events (66–47.8 million years ago)—a period considered a possible analogue for worst-case future scenarios. Here we compile global palaeoclimate data and develop a multi-proxy approach that integrates sedimentary proxies—such as plant fossils, ancient soils and river deposits—providing constraints on global precipitation intermittency (seasonal and interannual variability) and intensity (rainfall rate). The data reveal wet or monsoonal polar regions and aridity punctuated by intense rainfall at mid- and low-latitude continental interiors. This hydroclimate shift occurred 3 million years before and persisted 7 million years after the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum—the warmest period of the Cenozoic Era, suggesting that extreme warmth induces nonlinearities in the hydrological cycle’s sensitivity to temperature increase. Polar humidity and mid-latitude aridity further indicate a departure from the expected wet-gets-wetter and dry-gets-drier response. Shifts towards aridity were decoupled from mean annual precipitation and driven by seasonal and interannual precipitation distribution, such as shorter wet-season lengths and longer interannual rainfall recurrence intervals. This highlights the importance of considering precipitation intermittency and intensity, as similar shifts may occur under future warming despite differences in boundary conditions.