Temporal relationships of carbon cycling and ocean circulation at glacial boundaries.
Evidence from high-sedimentation-rate South Atlantic deep-sea cores indicates that global and Southern Ocean carbon budget shifts preceded thermohaline circulation changes during the last ice age initiation and termination and that these were preceded by ice-sheet growth and retreat, respectively. No consistent lead-lag relationships are observed during abrupt millennial warming events during the last ice age, allowing for the possibility that ocean circulation triggered some millenial climate changes. At the major glacial-interglacial transitions, the global carbon budget and thermohaline ocean circulation responded sequentially to the climate changes that forced the growth and decline of continental ice sheets.
Piotrowski
Alexander M
AM
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. apio04@esc.cam.ac.uk
Goldstein
Steven L
SL
Hemming
Sidney R
SR
Fairbanks
Richard G
RG