Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
Département de biologie, chimie et géographie et Centre d'études nordiques, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, QC, Canada.
Sci Adv. 2023 Jul 7;9(27):eadf0198. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adf0198. Epub 2023 Jul 5.
Polar temperatures during the Last Interglacial [LIG; ~129 to 116 thousand years (ka)] were warmer than today, making this time period an important testing ground to better understand how ice sheets respond to warming. However, it remains debated how much and when the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets changed during this period. Here, we present a combination of new and existing absolutely dated LIG sea-level observations from Britain, France, and Denmark. Because of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), the LIG Greenland ice melt contribution to sea-level change in this region is small, which allows us to constrain Antarctic ice change. We find that the Antarctic contribution to LIG global mean sea level peaked early in the interglacial (before 126 ka), with a maximum contribution of 5.7 m (50th percentile, 3.6 to 8.7 m central 68% probability) before declining. Our results support an asynchronous melt history over the LIG, with an early Antarctic contribution followed by later Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss.
末次间冰期（约 12.9 万至 11.6 万年前）期间的极地温度比今天更温暖，这使得这个时期成为更好地了解冰盖对变暖响应的重要试验场。然而，关于在此期间南极和格陵兰冰盖发生了多少变化以及何时发生变化，仍存在争议。在这里，我们展示了来自英国、法国和丹麦的新的和现有的绝对测年末次间冰期海平面观测结果的组合。由于冰川均衡调整（GIA），该地区间冰期格陵兰冰融化对海平面变化的贡献很小，这使我们能够约束南极冰的变化。我们发现，南极对全球平均海平面的贡献在间冰期早期达到峰值（在 126 千年前），最大贡献为 5.7 米（50%分位数，3.6 至 8.7 米的中心 68%概率），然后下降。我们的结果支持间冰期期间的非同步融化历史，南极的早期贡献随后是格陵兰冰盖后期的质量损失。
