Sea level rise estimates based on the transient deconvolution of ice volume and marine benthic records

Until recently d18O records of ice cores and d18O records from marine cores are interpreted separately, ice core records in terms of temperature and marine cores in terms of temperature and ice volume. However, the total amount of d18O in ice and ocean together is constant over time. This notion can be used to separate the marine record consistently in a temperature record and ice volume record by considering the isotope as a passive tracer in the ice sheet. Here we will show the importance of this work for the transient nature of slow climate changes during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. It is shown that, if there are ice sheets involved, the non-linearity of the climate system is large in terms of CO2 sensitivity or sea level change, much higher than for the present-day climate. Furthermore it will be shown how these transient results can be used to estimate present-day sea level change rates.