ABSTRACT
The planet is currently warming (Trenberth et al., 2007) and climate change modelling is the means by which the impact of this warming is determined. The high level of complexity in ecosystems reduces the skill of models to forecast the future impact of these changes. An alternative approach is to examine past records of global climates where the associated ecosystem responses are documented. Evidence for past global warming change is derived from isotope analysis of marine cores and polar ice cores. The most recent of these global-scale events took place at the end of the last glaciation commencing approximately 20 ka ago and is known as Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2). The penultimate warming was between MIS 4 (70 ka to 60 ka) and early MIS 3 (60 ka to 50 ka), and is the subject of this analysis. While the warming is known to have taken place, little evidence has been presented for the associated terrestrial ecosystem response to this change.
