Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation

The covariation of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and temperature in Antarctic ice-core records suggests a close link between CO2 and climate during the Pleistocene ice ages. The role and relative importance of CO2 in producing these climate changes remains unclear, however, in part because the...

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Published in:Nature
Main Authors: Bard, Edouard, Shakun, Jeremy D., Clark, Peter U., He, Feng, Marcott, Shaun A., Mix, Alan C., Liu, Zhengyu, Otto-Bliesner, Bette, Schmittner, Andreas
Other Authors: Collège de France - Chaire Evolution du climat et de l'océan, Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences Boston (EEOS), University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), University of Massachusetts System (UMASS)-University of Massachusetts System (UMASS), College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Corvallis (CEOAS), Oregon State University (OSU), Nanchang Hangkong University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Laboratório de Neurobiologia II - IBCCF / UFRJ Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho Rio de Janeiro (IBCCF / UFRJ), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)-Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder (NCAR)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2012
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Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-03772431
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10915
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Summary:The covariation of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and temperature in Antarctic ice-core records suggests a close link between CO2 and climate during the Pleistocene ice ages. The role and relative importance of CO2 in producing these climate changes remains unclear, however, in part because the ice-core deuterium record reflects local rather than global temperature. Here we construct a record of global surface temperature from 80 proxy records and show that temperature is correlated with and generally lags CO2 during the last (that is, the most recent) deglaciation. Differences between the respective temperature changes of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere parallel variations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation recorded in marine sediments. These observations, together with transient global climate model simulations, support the conclusion that an antiphased hemispheric temperature response to ocean circulation changes superimposed on globally in-phase warming driven by increasing CO2 concentrations is an explanation for much of the temperature change at the end of the most recent ice age.