THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LONG-RANGE FORAMINIFER TRANSFER FUNCTION AND APPLICATION TO LATE PLEISTOCENE NORTH ATLANTIC CLIMATIC EXTREMES

North Atlantic transfer function GSF18 was developed from simplified core top planktic foraminifer census data. Simplifications are based upon similar environmental responses of some modern taxa and assumptions about the paleoecology of now extinct Pliocene taxa. GSF18 is evaluated through application to "time slice" data sets from the last glacial maximum (18 ka) and last interglacial (122 ka) of the North Atlantic Ocean. Quantitative sea-surface temperature estimates from GSF18 at 106 glacial sites and 18 interglacial sites are approximately equivalent to Climate: Long Range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction (CLIMAP) results at the same sites: a glacial North Atlantic considerably cooler than modern conditions and a last interglacial North Atlantic approximately the same as or slightly warmer than modern conditions. Minor differences are explained by the taxonomic structure of GSF18 and provide further insight into the environmental and temporal robustness of the transfer function.