Atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last glacial termination.

A record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, obtained from the Dome Concordia, Antarctica, ice core, reveals that an increase of 76 parts per million by volume occurred over a period of 6000 years in four clearly distinguishable intervals. The close correlation between CO2 concentration and Antarctic temperature indicates that the Southern Ocean played an important role in causing the CO2 increase. However, the similarity of changes in CO2 concentration and variations of atmospheric methane concentration suggests that processes in the tropics and in the Northern Hemisphere, where the main sources for methane are located, also had substantial effects on atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

[1]  T. Stocker,et al.  Atmospheric CO2 concentration from 60 to 20 kyr BP from the Taylor Dome Ice Core, Antarctica , 2000 .

[2]  T. Stocker,et al.  Atmospheric CO2 concentration and millennial-scale climate change during the last glacial period , 1998, Nature.

[3]  R. Röthlisberger,et al.  Factors controlling nitrate in ice cores: Evidence from the Dome C deep ice core , 2000 .

[4]  T. Sowers,et al.  Climate Records Covering the Last Deglaciation , 1995, Science.

[5]  H. Oeschger,et al.  Evidence from polar ice cores for the increase in atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries , 1985, Nature.

[6]  Martin Wahlen,et al.  Holocene carbon-cycle dynamics based on CO2 trapped in ice at Taylor Dome, Antarctica , 1999, Nature.

[7]  B. Stauffer,et al.  Reconstructing past atmospheric CO2 concentration based on ice-core analyses: open questions due to in situ production of CO2 in the ice , 2000, Journal of Glaciology.

[8]  Hans-Peter Schertl,et al.  Geochim. cosmochim. acta , 1989 .

[9]  D. Etheridge,et al.  Natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric CO2 over the last 1000 years from air in Antarctic ice and firn , 1996 .

[10]  B. Stauffer,et al.  CO2 record between 40 and 8 kyr B.P. from the Greenland Ice Core Project ice core , 1997 .

[11]  J. Jouzel,et al.  The two-step shape and timing of the last deglaciation in Antarctica , 1995 .

[12]  T. Stocker,et al.  Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period , 1998, Nature.

[13]  Remo Guidieri.  Res , 1995, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics.

[14]  The role of ocean-atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cycles , 1989 .

[15]  H. J. Smith,et al.  The CO2 concentration of air trapped in GISP2 ice from the Last Glacial Maximum‐Holocene transition , 1997 .

[16]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record , 1993, Nature.

[17]  T. Stocker,et al.  Timing of the Antarctic cold reversal and the atmospheric CO2 increase with respect to the Younger Dryas Event , 1997 .

[18]  Smith,et al.  Ice core records of atmospheric CO2 around the last three glacial terminations , 1999, Science.

[19]  H. Oeschger,et al.  CO2 record in the Byrd ice core 50,000–5,000 years bp , 1988, Nature.

[20]  P. Mayewski,et al.  The CO2 concentration of air trapped in Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 ice formed during periods of rapid climate change , 1997 .

[21]  Jerome Chappellaz,et al.  Changes in the atmospheric CH4 gradient between Greenland and Antarctica during the Holocene , 1997 .

[22]  J. Jouzel,et al.  Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica , 1999, Nature.

[23]  F. Joos,et al.  Modelling the concentration of atmospheric CO2 during the Younger Dryas climate event , 1999 .