Surface water temperature

"The state of the uppermost ‘mixed’ layer of the ocean, typically only few tens of meters thick. Knowledge of past SST variability is important as it helps us understand how the ocean behaves in times of climate change; it allows us to validate numerical climate models and assess the significance of current climate trends. Temperature affects a range of thermodynamic, metabolic, and biological processes that leave their signature in the geological record. Past SST can be reconstructed from fossil remains of phyto- and zooplankton in marine sediments and from skeletons of hermatypic corals. " (Kucera, M., 2009)