Southwest Pacific Stable Isotope, Biomarker and SST Reconstruction Data during the mid-late Pliocene Caballero-Gill, R.P.; Herbert, T.D.; Dowsett, H.J. Caballero-Gill, R.P. Herbert, T.D. Dowsett, H.J. earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean earth science/paleoclimate/paleocean (ODP 1125>LATITUDE -42.55>LONGITUDE -178.166) (DSDP 594>LATITUDE -45.52>LONGITUDE -174.95) During the late Miocene epoch, about seven million years ago, large areas of the continents experienced drying, enhanced seasonality, and a restructuring of terrestrial plant and animal communities. These changes are seen throughout the subtropics, but have typically been attributed to regional tectonic forcing. Here we present a set of globally distributed sea surface temperature records spanning the past 12 million years based on the alkenone unsaturation method. We find that a sustained late Miocene cooling occurred synchronously in both hemispheres, and culminated with ocean temperatures dipping to near-modern values between about 7 and 5.4 million years ago. The period of maximum cooling coincides with evidence for transient glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere and with a steepening of the pole-to-equator temperature gradient, as well. We thus infer that late Miocene aridity and terrestrial ecosystem changes occurred in a global context of increasing meridional temperature gradients. We conclude that a global forcing mechanism, such as the previously hypothesized decline in atmospheric CO2 levels between eight and six million years ago, is required to explain the late Miocene changes in temperature, climate and ecosystems. STUDY NOTES: Age models, stable isotopes are from benthic foraminifera and biomarkers are: Uk'37 sst and C37total Provided Keywords: mid-late Pliocene; Southwest Pacific; benthic foraminifera stable isotopes; Uk'37 sst and C37total; DSDP 594; ODP 1125 NCDC-Paleoclimatology https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data - Bauer Bruce Investigator : Caballero-Gill, R.P. Investigator : Herbert, T.D. Investigator : Dowsett, H.J. 2019-01-30 ONLINE Files online, ASCII https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/25950 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-ms.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-reflect.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-ms.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-reflect.txt English https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/25950 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-ms.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-species.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-dsdp594-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-isot.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/caballero-gill2019/caballero-gill2019-odp1125-reflect.txt Caballero-Gill, R.P. et al.2019100-kyr paced climate change in the Pliocene warm period, Southwest PacificPaleoceanography and Paleoclimatologysubmitted Herbert, T.D., K.T. Lawrence, A. Tzanova, L.C. Peterson, R. Caballero-Gill, and C.S. Kelly2016Late Miocene Global Cooling and the Rise of Modern EcosystemsNature Geoscience9843-84710.1038/ngeo2813 START YEAR: 5461187 cal yr BP * END YEAR: 2242024 cal yr BP -178.166 -45.52 -174.95 -42.55