Triggering Mechanisms and Carbon Sequestration Timescales of Late Paleocene-Early Eocene Carbon Cycle Perturbations ...

• Main Author: Piedrahita Velez, Victor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Australian National University 2023
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/ymdh-k407; https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/288186

The representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 of the the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) indicates that if anthropogenic carbon emissions follow dramatic increasing trends, in the next ~200-300 years mean global temperatures can be ~5-10oC higher than today. This temperature increase may generate climate conditions similar to those of the late Paleocene-early Eocene (~58-52 Ma), which recorded the highest temperatures in the last ~60 Ma. Late Paleocene-early Eocene climates were characterized by a series of light carbon injections that produced major global warming/ocean acidification events called hyperthermals, and other smaller carbon cycle perturbations. Although late Paleocene-early Eocene geological records offer a possibility to identify global warming impacts under the worst anthropogenic-driven climatic scenario, important aspects related to the triggers and environmental responses of late Paleocene-early Eocene carbon cycle perturbations remain elusive. Here, two major ...