Climate: Past, Present & Future

SST

Forams, the sea thermometers of the past!

Mercè Cisneros Bermejo and Cacho Isabel from GRC Geociències Marines, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain November 24, 2017

Figure 1: Planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides specimen (scanning electron microscope picture of Isabel Cacho).

Name of proxy Mg/Ca-SST on planktonic foraminifera shell Type of record Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Paleoenvironment Marine environments Period of time investigated 55 Million years ago to recent times How does it work ? Foraminifera (or Forams) are single-celled organisms varying from less than 1 mm to several cm in size. They are very abundant in the ocean floor (benthic species) or floating a ...[Read More]

Corals, the thermometers of the past!

Emilie Dassié July 3, 2017

Picture of a diver on top of a coral colony in the American Samoa (credit B.K. Linsley).

Name of proxy: Coral Type of record: Oceanic variability Paleoenvironment: Fringing reefs, barrier reefs, or atoll Period of time investigated: Mainly the last 200 years How does it works ? What we usually picture as a coral is actually a colony of tiny living animals called coral polyps, which are closely related to jellyfish or anemones. They live in symbiosis with photosynthetic algae called Zo ...[Read More]