Center for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Tagensvej 16, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark; Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Center for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Tagensvej 16, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Curr Biol. 2019 Oct 7;29(19):R1045-R1054. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.08.066.
Fifty years ago, Willi Dansgaard and colleagues discovered several abrupt climate change events in Greenland during the last glacial period. Since then, several ice cores retrieved from the Greenland ice sheet have verified the existence of 25 abrupt climate warming events now known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events. These events are characterized by a rapid 10-15°C warming over a few decades followed by a stable period of centuries or millennia before a gradual return to full glacial conditions. Similar warming events have been identified in other paleo-archives in the Northern hemisphere. These findings triggered wide interest in abrupt climate change and its impact on biological diversity, but ambiguous definitions have constrained our ability to assign biotic responses to the different types of climate change. Here, we provide a coherent definition for different types of climatic change, including 'abrupt climate change', and a summary of past abrupt climate-change events. We then review biotic responses to abrupt climate change, from the genetic to the ecosystem level, and show that abrupt climatic and ecological changes have been instrumental in shaping biodiversity. We also identify open questions, such as what causes species resilience after an abrupt change. However, identifying causal relationships between past climate change and biological responses remains difficult. We need to formalize and unify the definition of abrupt change across disciplines and further investigate past abrupt climate change periods to better anticipate and mitigate the impacts on biodiversity and society wrought by human-made climate change.
五十年前，WilliDansgaard 及其同事在末次冰期的格陵兰发现了几次剧烈的气候变化事件。此后，从格陵兰冰原取回的多个冰芯证实了 25 次剧烈气候变暖事件的存在，现在这些事件被称为 Dansgaard-Oeschger 事件。这些事件的特征是在几十年内迅速升温 10-15°C，然后在逐渐恢复到完全冰川条件之前稳定几个世纪或几千年。在北半球的其他古档案中也发现了类似的变暖事件。这些发现引发了人们对剧烈气候变化及其对生物多样性影响的广泛关注，但定义不明确限制了我们将生物反应归因于不同类型气候变化的能力。在这里，我们为包括“剧烈气候变化”在内的不同类型的气候变化提供了一个连贯的定义，并总结了过去的剧烈气候变化事件。然后，我们回顾了生物对剧烈气候变化的反应，从遗传到生态系统水平，并表明剧烈的气候和生态变化在塑造生物多样性方面发挥了重要作用。我们还确定了一些悬而未决的问题，例如在剧烈变化后是什么导致了物种的恢复力。然而，确定过去气候变化与生物响应之间的因果关系仍然具有挑战性。我们需要在不同学科之间正式统一和统一急剧变化的定义，并进一步研究过去的急剧气候变化时期，以更好地预测和减轻人为气候变化对生物多样性和社会造成的影响。
