Insights into Glacial Terminations from a South Atlantic Perspective
The last two glacial terminations represent the most recent, and best documented, periods of Earth warming in the geological record. During these terminations atmospheric CO2 rose by approx- imately 100 ppm and global mean temperatures increased by 4-6 o C. Whilst the driver for these deglaciations...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2016
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/3673/ http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/3673/1/Jen%20Roberts%20cover.png http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/3673/2/Jen%20Roberts%20Thesis.pdf |
| Summary: | The last two glacial terminations represent the most recent, and best documented, periods of Earth warming in the geological record. During these terminations atmospheric CO2 rose by approx- imately 100 ppm and global mean temperatures increased by 4-6 o C. Whilst the driver for these deglaciations ultimately derives from changes in the insolation forcing at the edge of the atmo- sphere, feedbacks within the Earth’s climate system act to amplify these small external forcings tipping the Earth from a cold glacial climate state to a warm interglacial climate state. A key question in Quaternary climate science is understanding which feedbacks are important in regulat- ing global climate on glacial-interglacial timescales. On this topic, the Southern Ocean has long been considered to be an important player in regulating atmospheric CO2 on glacial-interglacial timescales. This thesis investigates some of the hypothesised drivers of changes in atmospheric CO2 on glacial-interglacial timescales by generating high-resolution multi-proxy records from the Southern Ocean spanning the last two glacial terminations. In particular, I focus on changes in the structure, circulation and biological productivity within the sub-Antarctic zone. |
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