ALBERT

Description: Past warm periods provide an opportunity to evaluate climate models under extreme forcing scenarios, in particular high ( 〉  800 ppmv) atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Although a post hoc intercomparison of Eocene ( ∼  50  Ma) climate model simulations and geological data has been carried out previously, models of past high-CO2 periods have never been evaluated in a consistent framework. Here, we present an experimental design for climate model simulations of three warm periods within the early Eocene and the latest Paleocene (the EECO, PETM, and pre-PETM). Together with the CMIP6 pre-industrial control and abrupt 4 ×  CO2 simulations, and additional sensitivity studies, these form the first phase of DeepMIP – the Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project, itself a group within the wider Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). The experimental design specifies and provides guidance on boundary conditions associated with palaeogeography, greenhouse gases, astronomical configuration, solar constant, land surface processes, and aerosols. Initial conditions, simulation length, and output variables are also specified. Finally, we explain how the geological data sets, which will be used to evaluate the simulations, will be developed.

Description: Much of our knowledge of past ocean temperatures comes from the foraminifera Mg / Ca palaeothermometer. Several non-thermal controls on foraminifera Mg incorporation have been identified, of which vital-effects, salinity and secular variation in seawater Mg / Ca are the most commonly considered. Ocean carbonate chemistry is also known to influence Mg / Ca, yet this is rarely considered as a source of uncertainty either because (1) precise pH and [CO32−] reconstructions are sparse, or (2) it is not clear from existing culture studies how a correction should be applied. We present new culture data of the relationship between carbonate chemistry for the surface-dwelling planktic species Globigerinoides ruber, and compare our results to data compiled from existing studies. We find a coherent relationship between Mg / Ca and the carbonate system and argue that pH rather than [CO32−] is likely to be the dominant control. Applying these new calibrations to datasets for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and Eocene–Oligocene Transition (EOT) enable us to produce a more accurate picture of surface hydrology change for the former, and a reassessment of the amount of subtropical precursor cooling for the latter. We show that properly corrected Mg / Ca and δ18O datasets for the PETM imply no salinity change, and that the amount of precursor cooling over the EOT has been previously underestimated by ∼ 2 °C based on Mg / Ca. Finally, we present new laser-ablation data of EOT-age Turborotalia ampliapertura from St Stephens Quarry (Alabama), for which a solution ICPMS Mg / Ca record is available (Wade et al., 2012). We show that the two datasets are in excellent agreement, demonstrating that fossil solution and laser-ablation data may be directly comparable. Together with an advancing understanding of the effect of Mg / Casw, the coherent picture of the relationship between Mg / Ca and pH that we outline here represents a step towards producing accurate and quantitative palaeotemperatures using this proxy.