(Table 1) Age determination of ODP Sites 124-769 and 124-768@en

The Sulu Sea is located in the 'warm pool' of the western Pacific Ocean, where mean annual temperatures are the highest of anywhere on Earth. Because this large heat source supplies the atmosphere with a significant portion of its water vapour and latent heat, understanding the climate history of the region is important for reconstructing global palaeoclimate and for predicting future climate change. Changes in the oxygen isotope composition of planktonic foraminifera from Sulu Sea sediments have previously been shown to reflect changes in the planetary ice volume at glacial–interglacial and millenial timeseales, and such records have been obtained for the late Pleistocene epoch and the last deglaciation (Linsley and Thunell, 1990, doi:10.1029/PA005i006p01025; Lindley and Dunbar, 1994, doi:10.1029/93PA03216; Kudrass et al., 1991, doi:10.1038/349406a0). Here I present results that extend the millenial time resolution record back to 150,000 years before present. On timescales of around 10,000 years, the Sulu Sea oxygen-isotope record matches changes in sea level deduced from coral terraces on the Huon peninsula (Chappell and Shackleton, doi:10.1038/324137a0). This is particularly the case during isotope stage 3 (an interglacial period 23,000 to 58,000 years ago) where the Sulu Sea oxygen-isotope record deviates from the SPECMAP deep-ocean oxygen-isotope record (Imbrie et al., 1984). Thus these results support the idea (Chappell and Shackleton, doi:10.1038/324137a0; Shackleton, 1987, doi:10.1016/0277-3791(87)90003-5) that there were higher sea levels and less continental ice during stage 3 than the SPECMAP record implies and that sea level during this interglacial was just 40–50 metres below present levels. The subsequent rate of increase in continental ice volume during the return to full glacial conditions was correspondingly faster than previously thought.苏禄海位于西太平洋“暖池”区域，其年平均气温为全球最高。由于这一巨型热源为大气提供了占比可观的水汽与潜热，因此解析该区域的气候历史，对于重建全球古气候（palaeoclimate）以及预测未来气候变化均具备关键意义。此前已有研究证实，苏禄海沉积物中的浮游有孔虫（planktonic foraminifera）氧同位素组成变化，可反映冰期-间冰期（glacial–interglacial）与千年尺度（millenial timescales）下的全球冰量变动，相关记录已覆盖晚更新世（late Pleistocene epoch）与末次冰消期（last deglaciation）（Linsley与Thunell，1990，doi:10.1029/PA005i006p01025；Lindley与Dunbar，1994，doi:10.1029/93PA03216；Kudrass等，1991，doi:10.1038/349406a0）。本文首次将该千年分辨率的记录回溯至距今15万年。在约1万年的时间尺度上，苏禄海氧同位素记录与休恩半岛（Huon peninsula）珊瑚阶地（coral terraces）推导得出的海平面变化趋势高度吻合（Chappell与Shackleton，doi:10.1038/324137a0），这一现象在同位素3期（isotope stage 3，即2.3万至5.8万年前的间冰期）尤为显著——该时期苏禄海氧同位素记录与SPECMAP深海氧同位素记录存在显著偏差（Imbrie等，1984）。据此，本研究结果支持如下学术观点（Chappell与Shackleton，doi:10.1038/324137a0；Shackleton，1987，doi:10.1016/0277-3791(87)90003-5）：同位素3期的海平面更高、大陆冰量（continental ice volume）更少，与SPECMAP记录的推断相悖，且该间冰期的海平面仅较现代低40至50米；在随后向全冰期条件过渡的过程中，大陆冰量的增长速率也较此前学界的认知更快。