Reply to 'Pliocene warmth and gradients'

Brierley et al.1 question our findings of elevated temperatures in the tropical warm pools during the Pliocene2. Focusing specifically on the mid-Pliocene warm period (about 3.3 to 3 million years ago), as framed by Brierley et al., we continue to find evidence for warmer than Holocene temperatures in the western Pacific warm pool in good agreement with PlioMIP simulations, especially in light of new pCO2 reconstructions3.