Dry hydroclimates in the late Palaeocene-early Eocene hothouse world
Extreme global warming can produce hydroclimate changes that remain poorly understood for sub-tropical latitudes. Late Palaeocene-early Eocene (LPEE; ~58-52 Ma) proto-Mediterranean zones of the western Tethys offer opportunities to assess hydroclimate responses to massive carbon cycle perturbations. Here, we reconstruct LPEE hydroclimate conditions of these regions and find that carbon cycle perturbations exerted controls on orbitally forced hydroclimate variability. Long-term (~6 Myr) carbon cycle changes induced a gradual precipitation/moisture reduction, which was exacerbated by some short-lived (<200 kyr) carbon cycle perturbations that caused rapid warming and exceptionally dry conditions in western Tethyan continental areas. Hydroclimate recovery following the greatest short-lived global warming events took ~24-27 kyr. These observations support the notion that anthropogenically driven warming can cause widespread aridification with impacts that may last tens of thousands of years.
Authors
- Fabio Florindo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-9748)
- Pengxiang Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2066-6355)
- Simone Galeotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9636-9344)
- Victor A. Piedrahita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7875-904X)
- Katharine Grant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4299-5504)
- David Heslop (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8245-0555)
- Eelco J. Rohling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-2158)
- Xiang Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1168-3439)
- Jinhua Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1622-6170)
- Andrew P. Roberts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0566-8117)
Institutions
- Australian National University (AU)
- University of Urbino (IT)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- National Oceanography Centre (GB)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT)
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (CN)
- Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (CN)
- Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology (CN)
- Institute of Geology and Geophysics (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51430-6
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.63
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China