Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years
The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and, in particular, the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO 2 , beyond the ice-core record prohibit, however, a ful...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d92afcf2840c49d9bd4d584b9066721e 2023-05-15T16:39:01+02:00 Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years P. Köhler R. Bintanja L. J. Lourens B. de Boer R. S. W. van de Wal 2011-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 https://doaj.org/article/d92afcf2840c49d9bd4d584b9066721e EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.clim-past.net/7/1459/2011/cp-7-1459-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/d92afcf2840c49d9bd4d584b9066721e Climate of the Past, Vol 7, Iss 4, Pp 1459-1469 (2011) Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2011 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 2022-12-31T00:17:46Z The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and, in particular, the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO 2 , beyond the ice-core record prohibit, however, a full understanding of, for example, the inception of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation and mid-Pleistocene transition. Here we elaborate on an inverse modelling technique to reconstruct a continuous CO 2 series over the past 20 million year (Myr), by decomposing the global deep-sea benthic δ 18 O record into a mutually consistent temperature and sea level record, using a set of 1-D models of the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets. We subsequently compared the modelled temperature record with ice core and proxy-derived CO 2 data to create a continuous CO 2 reconstruction over the past 20 Myr. Results show a gradual decline from 450 ppmv around 15 Myr ago to 225 ppmv for mean conditions of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last 1 Myr, coinciding with a gradual cooling of the global surface temperature of 10 K. Between 13 to 3 Myr ago there is no long-term sea level variation caused by ice-volume changes. We find no evidence of change in the long-term relation between temperature change and CO 2 , other than the effect following the saturation of the absorption bands for CO 2 . The reconstructed CO 2 record shows that the Northern Hemisphere glaciation starts once the long-term average CO 2 concentration drops below 265 ppmv after a period of strong decrease in CO 2 . Finally, only a small long-term decline of 23 ppmv is found during the mid-Pleistocene transition, constraining theories on this major transition in the climate system. The approach is not accurate enough to revise current ideas about climate sensitivity. Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Climate of the Past 7 4 1459 1469 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 P. Köhler R. Bintanja L. J. Lourens B. de Boer R. S. W. van de Wal Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
topic_facet |
Environmental pollution TD172-193.5 Environmental protection TD169-171.8 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and, in particular, the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO 2 , beyond the ice-core record prohibit, however, a full understanding of, for example, the inception of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation and mid-Pleistocene transition. Here we elaborate on an inverse modelling technique to reconstruct a continuous CO 2 series over the past 20 million year (Myr), by decomposing the global deep-sea benthic δ 18 O record into a mutually consistent temperature and sea level record, using a set of 1-D models of the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets. We subsequently compared the modelled temperature record with ice core and proxy-derived CO 2 data to create a continuous CO 2 reconstruction over the past 20 Myr. Results show a gradual decline from 450 ppmv around 15 Myr ago to 225 ppmv for mean conditions of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last 1 Myr, coinciding with a gradual cooling of the global surface temperature of 10 K. Between 13 to 3 Myr ago there is no long-term sea level variation caused by ice-volume changes. We find no evidence of change in the long-term relation between temperature change and CO 2 , other than the effect following the saturation of the absorption bands for CO 2 . The reconstructed CO 2 record shows that the Northern Hemisphere glaciation starts once the long-term average CO 2 concentration drops below 265 ppmv after a period of strong decrease in CO 2 . Finally, only a small long-term decline of 23 ppmv is found during the mid-Pleistocene transition, constraining theories on this major transition in the climate system. The approach is not accurate enough to revise current ideas about climate sensitivity. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
P. Köhler R. Bintanja L. J. Lourens B. de Boer R. S. W. van de Wal |
author_facet |
P. Köhler R. Bintanja L. J. Lourens B. de Boer R. S. W. van de Wal |
author_sort |
P. Köhler |
title |
Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
title_short |
Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
title_full |
Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
title_fullStr |
Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution CO 2 record over the past 20 million years |
title_sort |
reconstruction of a continuous high-resolution co 2 record over the past 20 million years |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 https://doaj.org/article/d92afcf2840c49d9bd4d584b9066721e |
genre |
ice core |
genre_facet |
ice core |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Vol 7, Iss 4, Pp 1459-1469 (2011) |
op_relation |
http://www.clim-past.net/7/1459/2011/cp-7-1459-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9324 https://doaj.org/toc/1814-9332 doi:10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 1814-9324 1814-9332 https://doaj.org/article/d92afcf2840c49d9bd4d584b9066721e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1459-2011 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
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7 |
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4 |
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1459 |
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1469 |
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