A coupled model for carbon and radiocarbon evolution during the last deglaciation

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Mariotti, Véronique, Paillard, Didier, Bopp, Laurent, Roche, Didier M., Bouttes, Nathaëlle
• Other Authors: 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), Modélisation du climat (CLIM), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-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)), Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01587469; https://hal.science/hal-01587469/document; https://hal.science/hal-01587469/file/2015GL067489.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL067489

International audience Changes in the ventilation of the Southern Ocean are thought to play an important role on deglacial carbon and radiocarbon evolution but have not been tested within a coupled climate-carbon model. Here we present such a simulation based on a simple scenario of transient deglacial sinking of brines-sea ice salt rejections-around Antarctica, which modulates Southern Ocean ventilation. This experiment is able to reproduce deglacial atmospheric changes in carbon and radiocarbon and also ocean radiocarbon records measured in the Atlantic, Southern, and Pacific Oceans. Simulated for the first time in a fully coupled climate-carbon model of intermediate complexity including radiocarbon, our modeling results suggest that the deglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and radiocarbon were achieved by means of a breakdown in the glacial brine-induced stratification of the Southern Ocean.