Siple Dome ice reveals two modes of millennial CO2 change during the last ice age.
Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 during times of past abrupt climate change may help us better understand climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Previous ice core studies reveal simultaneous increases in atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature during times when Greenland and the northern hemisphere experienced very long, cold stadial conditions during the last ice age. Whether this relationship extends to all of the numerous stadial events in the Greenland ice core record has not been clear. Here we present a high-resolution record of atmospheric CO2 from the Siple Dome ice core, Antarctica for part of the last ice age. We find that CO2 does not significantly change during the short Greenlandic stadial events, implying that the climate system perturbation that produced the short stadials was not strong enough to substantially alter the carbon cycle.
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151742, Korea.
Jinho
J
Ahn
College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
Edward J
EJ
Brook
D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D057231:Climate Change / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D049690:History, Ancient; D007053:Ice / Q000032:analysis*; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis
D007053:Ice; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D008697:Methane