Rapid late‐glacial atmospheric CO 2 changes reconstructed from the stomatal density record of fossil leaves
Abstract The Younger Dryas stadial (11 000‐10 000 yr BP) was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation. We have reconstructed atmospheric CO 2 concentrations from a high‐resolution sequence of fossil Salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation fr...
| Published in: | Journal of Quaternary Science |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
1995
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3390100407 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.3390100407 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.3390100407 |
| Summary: | Abstract The Younger Dryas stadial (11 000‐10 000 yr BP) was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation. We have reconstructed atmospheric CO 2 concentrations from a high‐resolution sequence of fossil Salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation from Kråkenes, western Norway, using the relationship between leaf stomatal density and atmospheric CO 2 concentration. High Allerød CO 2 values (median 273 ppmv) decreased rapidly during 130–200 14 C‐years of the late Allerød to ca. 210 ppmv at the start of the Younger Dryas. They then increased steadily through the Younger Dryas, reaching typical interglacial values once more ( ca. 275 ppmv) in the Holocene. The rapid late Allerød decrease in CO 2 concentration preceded the Younger Dryas temperature drop, possibly by several decades. This striking pattern of changes has not so far been recorded unambiguously in temporally coarse measurements of atmospheric CO 2 from ice cores. Our observed late‐glacial CO 2 changes have implications for global modelling of the ocean‐atmosphere‐biosphere over the last glacial‐interglacial transition. |
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