HR: 08:50h
AN: PP31E-04 [Abstracts]
TI: Atmospheric CO2 and climate change on millennial time scales during the last glacial period
AU: * Ahn, J
EM: jinhoahn@gmail.com
AF: Oregon State University, Dept. of Geosciences,104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-
5506, United States
AU: Brook, E J
EM: brooke@geo.oregonstate.edu
AF: Oregon State University, Dept. of Geosciences,104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-
5506, United States
AB:
How atmospheric CO2 varies and is controlled on millennial time scale is an important question for
understanding how the carbon cycle and climate change are linked. Common time scales for climate proxies and
atmospheric CO2 are needed to answer this question. Here we provide atmospheric CO2 records from ~90 to
20 ka BP (thousand years before 1950) from the Byrd ice core, on a chronology synchronized with Greenland ice
core records, allowing direct comparison of CO2 with Greenlandic and Antarctic temperature proxies, Heinrich
events and atmospheric CH4.
Atmospheric CO2 rose several thousand years before abrupt warming in Greenland associated with Dansgaard-
Oeschger events, 2, 4, 8, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, and 21, and the start of CO2 increases predates massive ice
discharge events (H events 2, 3, 4, 5, 5a, 6) by 0 to 3 ka. The CO2 increase rate was rapidly reduced at the
Greenland warming (which also corresponds to a maximum in Antarctic temperature) for each of these events,
implying a global mechanism that can simultaneously affect atmospheric CO2 and temperature in both
hemispheres. The CO2 decrease following Antarctic temperature maxima/abrupt Greenland warming event
lagged those features by several centuries. CO2 variations during millennial events of the last ice age have
features in common with the CO2 rise during the last glacial termination, including tight correlation with Antarctic
warming, a several thousand year lead relative to Greenland warming, and possibly small jumps in CO2 at the
time of abrupt Greenland warming.
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 0724 Ice cores (4932)
DE: 4901 Abrupt/rapid climate change (1605)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting