Ice Core Records of Atmospheric CO2 Around the Last Three Glacial Terminations
Hubertus Fischer,
Martin Wahlen,
Jesse Smith,
Derek Mastroianni,
Bruce Deck
Air trapped in bubbles in polar ice cores constitutes an archive
for the reconstruction of the global carbon cycle and the relation
between greenhouse gases and climate in the past. High-resolution records from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide
concentrations increased by 80 to 100 parts per million by volume
600 ± 400 years after the warming of the last three
deglaciations. Despite strongly decreasing temperatures, high carbon
dioxide concentrations can be sustained for thousands of years during
glaciations; the size of this phase lag is probably connected to the
duration of the preceding warm period, which controls the change in
land ice coverage and the buildup of the terrestrial biosphere.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Geosciences Research
Division, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0220,
USA.
