Interaction of ice sheets and climate on geological time scales

• Main Author: Stap, L.B.
• Other Authors: Sub Dynamics Meteorology, Stratigraphy and paleontology, Marine and Atmospheric Research, Stratigraphy & paleontology, Lourens, Lucas, van de Wal, Roderik
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UU Dept. of Earth Sciences 2017
• Subjects: Paleoclimate; Climate modelling; Ice-sheet modelling; Carbon-dioxide reconstructions; Oxygen isotopes; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/347588

Since the inception of the Antarctic ice sheet at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (~34 Myr ago), land ice plays a crucial role in Earth’s climate. Through the ice-albedo and surface-height-temperature feedbacks, land ice variability strengthens atmospheric temperature changes induced by orbital and CO2 variations. Quantification of these feedbacks on long time scales has hitherto seldom been undertaken. Limiting factors are insufficient computational power and lack of reliable CO2 data beyond 800 kyr ago. In this thesis, we use a zonally averaged energy balance climate model bi-directionally coupled to a one-dimensional ice sheet model. The relative simplicity of these models allows us to perform fully transient simulations of global climate and all major ice sheets over the past 38 Myrs. First, we run the coupled model in forward mode, forced by prescribed CO2 from ice core data over the past 800 kyr, for benchmarking purposes. We show that the model produces results in good agreement with a recent data reconstruction of the Last Glacial Maximum to pre-industrial temperature difference, as well as several temperature records from ice cores and marine sediment cores. Thereafter, an inverse routine is used to yield CO2 over the past 5 Myr from a benthic δ18O record. Using this inverse model, we simulate Pliocene (5 to 2.5 Myr ago) CO2 levels that are generally higher and more variable than expected from global mean temperature changes, because of reduced ice sheet variability. Our findings therefore also indicate a smaller Earth System Sensitivity. Using the same approach, we simulate the past 38 Myr. We obtain similar CO2 levels just before the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT; ~35 Myr ago) and during the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO; ~15 Myr ago), because the forcing δ18O values are also at comparably high levels. However, proxy data from several sources show higher CO2 before the EOT than during the MMCO. We offer an explanation for this MMCO-EOT conundrum by considering erosion and/or tectonic ...