热带海区在千年尺度气候变化中的作用

RECONSTRUCTED MILLENNIAL-SCALE CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE TROPICAL SEA AREA

全球气候变化研究最显著的成果之一,就是确定了气候可以在全球范围内突然发生变化,例如第四纪冰期旋回及全新世千年尺度的气候波动。了解和掌握这种快速气候变化的特征和驱动机制对于研究和预测人类生存环境的变化趋势和全球气候变化至关重要。研究发现,这种千年尺度的快速气候变动不仅见于冰心和北大西洋高纬区,而且在热带海区也有记录;现代热带大洋在全球气候系统中,尤其是千年尺度的快速气候变化中起着关键作用,类似现代厄尔尼诺—南方涛动的热带海洋—大气系统的变化,可能是冰期千年尺度古气候事件的根源所在。由于南海的特殊地理位置,快速气候变化事件在南海有大量的高分辨率沉积记录,是我国研究全球变化区域响应及其驱动力的天然试验场。

The knowledge of rapid climate changes is one of the recent achievements in global climate researches, and an example is the millennial climate oscillation in the last glacial stage. It is important for us to predict future climate after understanding the character and mechanism of climatic changes. It has been revealed that millennial-scale climate variability is a global phenomenon, which was not limited to the ice cores and high latitudes of the North Atlantic, but extended to other oceans such as the tropical Pacific and other parts of the globe. The tropical seas play an important role in the global climate changes, especially in the millennial climate oscillation. The super ENSO is possibly the source of this oscillation. There are also records in South China Sea, and it is an ideal place for scientists to do researches on the regional response and mechanism of the global changes.