How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Three Thousand Years of Climate Over the Norwegian Sea
Reference
Andersson, C., Risebrobakken, B., Jansen, E. and Dahl, S.O.  2003.  Late Holocene surface ocean conditions of the Norwegian Sea (Voring Plateau).  Paleoceanography 18: 10.1029/2001PA000654.

What was done
Surface conditions of the eastern Norwegian Sea (Voring Plateau) were inferred from planktic stable isotopes and planktic foraminiferal assemblage concentrations in two seabed sediment cores obtained in the vicinity of 66.97°N, 7.64°W that covered the period of the last three thousand years.

What was learned
The climate history derived from this study is remarkably similar to that derived by McDermott et al. (2001) from a high-resolution speleothem ð18O record obtained from a stalagmite discovered in a cave in southwestern Ireland.  At the beginning of the 3000-year-long Voring Plateau record, both regions were clearly in the end-stage of the long cold period that preceded the Roman Warm Period.  Hence, both records depict warming from that point in time to the peak of the Roman Warm Period, which occurred about 2000 years BP.  Then, both regions begin their descent into the Dark Ages Cold Period, which held sway until the increase in temperature that produced the Medieval Warm Period, which in both records prevailed from about 800 to 550 years BP.  Last of all, the Little Ice Age is evident, with cold periods centered at approximately 400 and 100 years BP, again in both records.

Two final points of interest: (1) neither record indicates the existence of what has come to be called the Modern Warm Period, and (2) Andersson et al. report that "surface ocean conditions warmer than present were common during the past 3000 years."

What it means
As time passes, evidence for the reality of the solar-induced millennial-scale cycling of climate described by Bond et al. (1997, 2001) continues to mount, while evidence for the "unprecedented" temperature claimed for the present by climate alarmists continues to be sought but not found.

References
Bond, G., Kromer, B., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Evans, M.N., Showers, W., Hoffmann, S., Lotti-Bond, R., Hajdas, I. and Bonani, G.  2001.  Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene.  Science 294: 2130-2136.

Bond, G., Showers, W., Chezebiet, M., Lotti, R., Almasi, P., deMenocal, P., Priore, P., Cullen, H., Hajdas, I. and Bonani, G.  1997.  A pervasive millennial scale cycle in North-Atlantic Holocene and glacial climates.  Science 278: 1257-1266.

McDermott, F., Mattey, D.P. and Hawkesworth, C.  2001.  Centennial-scale Holocene climate variability revealed by a high-resolution speleothem ð18O record from SW Ireland.  Science 294: 1328-1331.


Reviewed 20 August 2003