Temporal Relationships of Carbon Cycling and Ocean Circulation at Glacial Boundaries

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Piotrowski, Alexander M., Goldstein, Steven L., Hemming, Sidney R., Fairbanks, Richard G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2005
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1104883; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1104883

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.