Quantitative interpretation of atmospheric carbon records over the last glacial termination

• Main Authors: Hubertus Fischer, Guy Munhoven, Richard E. Zeebe
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.499.4899; http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~gruber/teaching/papers_to_read/koehler_gbc_05.pdf

[1] The glacial/interglacial rise in atmospheric pCO2 is one of the best known changes in paleoclimate research, yet the cause for it is still unknown. Forcing the coupled ocean-atmosphere-biosphere box model of the global carbon cycle BICYCLE with proxy data over the last glacial termination, we are able to quantitatively reproduce transient variations in pCO2 and its isotopic signatures (d13C, D14C) observed in natural climate archives. The sensitivity of the Box model of the Isotopic Carbon cYCLE (BICYCLE) to high or low latitudinal changes is comparable to other multibox models or more complex ocean carbon cycle models, respectively. The processes considered here ranked by their contribution to the glacial/interglacial rise in pCO2 in decreasing order are: the rise in Southern Ocean vertical mixing rates (>30 ppmv), decreases in alkalinity and carbon inventories (>30 ppmv), the reduction of the biological pump (20 ppmv), the rise in ocean temperatures (15–20 ppmv), the resumption of ocean circulation (15–20 ppmv), and coral reef growth (<5 ppmv). The regrowth of the terrestrial biosphere, sea level rise and the increase in gas exchange through reduced sea ice cover operate in the opposite direction, decreasing pCO2 during Termination I by 30 ppmv. According to