Palaeotemperature proxies in the marine micropalaeontology

Abstract

Developing Earth System Models reconstructing and predicting global climate trends gave new
perspectives to palaeoclimate research. The need for fully quantitative methods to reconstruct climate in
the past gave rise to proxy research. Proxies are estimated environmental variables, which are essential
in improving climate models. Proxies can serve directly as input data for models or as palaeorecords to
test models with. The aim of this publication is to define the expression "proxy" in Hungarian and give
a rough overview of proxy research with special attention to palaeotemperature proxies used by marine
micropalaeontologists. In the present work a few sea surface temperature (SST) estimating proxies are
described based on plankton foraminifera assemblages, stable isotope ratio of oxygen (8 1 8 0 ) , and
alkenons (UK'37.) A few Middle Miocene palaeotemperature estimating examples are brought up from
the Paratethys region, as this period was the last marine period of time in this region.