Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Variations on Centennial Time Scales During the Past Two Millennia

• Published in: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
• Main Authors: Ryu, Yeongjun, Ahn, Jinho, Yang, Ji-Woong, Brook, Edward J., Timmermann, Axel, Blunier, Thomas, Hur, Soon-Do, Kim, S. J.
• Other Authors: Seoul National University Seoul (SNU), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Oregon State University (OSU), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pusan National University, IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Korea Basic Science Institute, KBSI: IBS-R028-D1 National Research Foundation of Korea, NRF: NRF-2018R1A2B3003256, We thank Soonil An and Seok-Woo Son for valuable comments. Financial support was provided by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (NRF-2018R1A2B3003256). A.?T. was supported by the Institute for Basic Science (Project Code IBS-R028-D1).
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: ice core; nitrous oxide; paleoclimate; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Antarc*; Antarctic; glacier; Greenland; North Greenland
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03032374; https://hal.science/hal-03032374/document; https://hal.science/hal-03032374/file/2020GB006568-1-1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006568

International audience The continuous growth of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) is of concern for its potential role in global warming and future stratospheric ozone destruction. Climate feedbacks that enhance N2O emissions in response to global warming are not well understood, and past records of N2O from ice cores are not sufficiently well resolved to examine the underlying climate-N2O feedbacks on societally relevant time scales. Here, we present a new high-resolution and high-precision N2O reconstruction obtained from the Greenland NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) and the Antarctic Styx Glacier ice cores. Covering the N2O history of the past two millennia, our reconstruction shows a centennial-scale variability of ~10 ppb. A pronounced minimum at ~600 CE coincides with the reorganizations of tropical hydroclimate and ocean productivity changes. Comparisons with proxy records suggest association of centennial- to millennial-scale variations in N2O with changes in tropical and subtropical land hydrology and marine productivity.