Holocene carbon-cycle dynamics based on CO2 trapped in ice at Taylor Dome, Antarctica

A high-resolution ice-core record of atmospheric CO2 concentration over the Holocene epoch shows that the global carbon cycle has not been in steady state during the past 11,000 years. Analysis of the CO2 concentration and carbon stable-isotope records, using a one-dimensional carbon-cycle model,uggests that changes in terrestrial biomass and sea surface temperature were largely responsible for the observed millennial-scale changes of atmospheric CO2 concentrations

State of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Climate System

This paper reviews developments in our understanding of the state of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate and its relation to the global climate system over the last few millennia. Climate over this and earlier periods has not been stable, as evidenced by the occurrence of abrupt changes in atmospheric circulation and temperature recorded in Antarctic ice core proxies for past climate. Two of the most prominent abrupt climate change events are characterized by intensification of the circumpolar westerlies (also known as the Southern Annular Mode) between ∼6000 and 5000 years ago and since 1200–1000 years ago. Following the last of these is a period of major trans-Antarctic reorganization of atmospheric circulation and temperature between A.D. 1700 and 1850. The two earlier Antarctic abrupt climate change events appear linked to but predate by several centuries even more abrupt climate change in the North Atlantic, and the end of the more recent event is coincident with reorganization of atmospheric circulation in the North Pacific. Improved understanding of such events and of the associations between abrupt climate change events recorded in both hemispheres is critical to predicting the impact and timing of future abrupt climate change events potentially forced by anthropogenic changes in greenhouse gases and aerosols. Special attention is given to the climate of the past 200 years, which was recorded by a network of recently available shallow firn cores, and to that of the past 50 years, which was monitored by the continuous instrumental record. Significant regional climate changes have taken place in the Antarctic during the past 50 years. Atmospheric temperatures have increased markedly over the Antarctic Peninsula, linked to nearby ocean warming and intensification of the circumpolar westerlies. Glaciers are retreating on the peninsula, in Patagonia, on the sub-Antarctic islands, and in West Antarctica adjacent to the peninsula. The penetration of marine air masses has become more pronounced over parts of West Antarctica. Above the surface, the Antarctic troposphere has warmed during winter while the stratosphere has cooled year-round. The upper kilometer of the circumpolar Southern Ocean has warmed, Antarctic Bottom Water across a wide sector off East Antarctica has freshened, and the densest bottom water in the Weddell Sea has warmed. In contrast to these regional climate changes, over most of Antarctica, near-surface temperature and snowfall have not increased significantly during at least the past 50 years, and proxy data suggest that the atmospheric circulation over the interior has remained in a similar state for at least the past 200 years. Furthermore, the total sea ice cover around Antarctica has exhibited no significant overall change since reliable satellite monitoring began in the late 1970s, despite large but compensating regional changes. The inhomogeneity of Antarctic climate in space and time implies that recent Antarctic climate changes are due on the one hand to a combination of strong multidecadal variability and anthropogenic effects and, as demonstrated by the paleoclimate record, on the other hand to multidecadal to millennial scale and longer natural variability forced through changes in orbital insolation, greenhouse gases, solar variability, ice dynamics, and aerosols. Model projections suggest that over the 21st century the Antarctic interior will warm by 3.4° ± 1°C, and sea ice extent will decrease by ∼30%. Ice sheet models are not yet adequate enough to answer pressing questions about the effect of projected warming on mass balance and sea level. Considering the potentially major impacts of a warming climate on Antarctica, vigorous efforts are needed to better understand all aspects of the highly coupled Antarctic climate system as well as its influence on the Earth\u27s climate and oceans

Increased nutrient supply to the Southern Ocean during the Holocene and its implications for the pre-industrial atmospheric CO₂ rise

A rise in the atmospheric CO2 concentration of ~20 parts per million over the course of the Holocene has long been recognized as exceptional among interglacials and is in need of explanation. Previous hypotheses involved natural or anthropogenic changes in terrestrial biomass, carbonate compensation in response to deglacial outgassing of oceanic CO2, and enhanced shallow water carbonate deposition. Here, we compile new and previously published fossil-bound nitrogen isotope records from the Southern Ocean that indicate a rise in surface nitrate concentration through the Holocene. When coupled with increasing or constant export production, these data suggest an acceleration of nitrate supply to the Southern Ocean surface from underlying deep water. This change would have weakened the ocean’s biological pump that stores CO2 in the ocean interior, possibly explaining the Holocene atmospheric CO2 rise. Over the Holocene, the circum-North Atlantic region cooled, and the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water appears to have slowed. Thus, the ‘seesaw’ in deep ocean ventilation between the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean that has been invoked for millennial-scale events, deglaciations and the last interglacial period may have also operated, albeit in a more gradual form, over the Holocene

The ice record of greenhouse gases: a view in the context of future changes

Analysis of air trapped in polar ice provides the most direct information on the natural variability of Greenhouse Trace Gases (GTG). It gives the context for the dramatic change in their atmospheric concentrations induced by anthropogenic activities over the last 200 yr, leading to present-day levels which have been unprecedented over the last 400,000 yr. The GTG ice record also provides insight into the processes generally involved in the interplay between these trace gases and the climate and in particular those which are likely to take place in the next centuries in terms of climate changes and climate feedbacks on ecosystems. The paper gives selected examples of the GTG record, taken during different climatic periods in the past, and illustrating what we can learn in terms of processes

Simulated changes in vegetation distribution, land carbon storage, and atmospheric CO2 in response to a collapse of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation

Measurements on glacial ice show that atmospheric CO2 varied by 20ppmv with large iceberg discharges into the North Atlantic (NA) and themost prominent Dansgaard/ Oeschger (D/O) climate fluctuations. CO2variations during less pronounced D/O events were smaller than a fewppm. The D/O fluctuations have been linked to changes in the NAThermohaline Circulation (THC). Here, we analyse how abrupt changes inthe NA THC affect the terrestrial carbon cycle by forcing theLund-Potsdam-Jena Dynamic Global Vegetation Model with climateperturbations from freshwater experiments with the ECBILT-CLIOgeneral circulation model. Changes in the marine carbon cycle are notaddressed. Modelled NA THC collapsed and recovered after about amillennium in response to prescribed freshwater forcing. The initialcooling of several Kelvin over Eurasia causes a reduction ofextant boreal and temperate forests and a decrease in carbon storage inhigh northern latitudes, whereas improved growing conditions andslower soil decomposition rates lead to enhanced storage inmid-latitudes. The magnitude and evolution of global terrestrialcarbon storage in response to abrupt THC changes depends sensitivelyon the initial climate conditions. Terrestrial storage varies between-67 and +50 PgC for arange of experiments that start at different times during the last21,000 years. Simulated peak-to-peak differences in atmospheric CO2and d13C are between {6 and 18 ppmv} and $0.18$ and $0.30$~\mypermil and compatible with the ice core CO2 record

Atmospheric CO₂concentration and millennial-scale climate change during the last glacial period

The analysis of air bubbles trapped in polar ice has permitted the reconstruction of past atmospheric concentrations of CO2 over various timescales, and revealed that large climate changes over tens of thousands of years are generally accompanied by changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. But the extent to which such covariations occur for fast, millennial-scale climate shifts, such as the Dansgaard–Oeschger events recorded in Greenland ice cores during the last glacial period, is unresolved; CO2 data from Greenland and Antarctic ice cores have been conflicting in this regard. More recent work suggests that Antarctic ice should provide a more reliable CO2 record, as the higher dust content of Greenland ice can give rise to artefacts. To compare the rapid climate changes recorded in the Greenland ice with the global trends in atmospheric CO2 concentrations as recorded in the Antarctic ice, an accurate common timescale is needed. Here we provide such a timescale for the last glacial period using the records of global atmospheric methane concentrations from both Greenland and Antarctic ice. We find that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 generally varied little with Dansgaard–Oeschger events (<10 parts per million by volume, p.p.m.v.) but varied significantly with Heinrich iceberg-discharge events (∼20 p.p.m.v.), especially those starting with a long-lasting Dansgaard–Oeschger event