Carbon isotopes characterize rapid changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the last deglaciation
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Antarctic ice cores provide a precise, well-dated history of increasing atmospheric CO 2 during the last glacial to interglacial transition. However, the mechanisms that drive the increase remain unclear. Here we reconstruct a key indicator of the sources of atmospheric CO 2 by measuring the stable isotopic composition of CO 2 in samples spanning the period from 22,000 to 11,000 years ago from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. Improvements in precision and resolution allow us to fingerprint CO 2 sources on the centennial scale. The data reveal two intervals of rapid CO 2 rise that are plausibly driven by sources from land carbon (at 16.3 and 12.9 ka) and two others that appear fundamentally different and likely reflect a combination of sources (at 14.6 and 11.5 ka).
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The 14C trough appears slightly earlier than the abrupt rise in atmospheric CO2 at the start of Greenland Interstadial 1 that started around 14.6 cal kBP in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core on its most recent age scale WD2014.
“The 14 C trough appears slightly earlier than the abrupt rise in atmospheric CO2 at the start of Greenland Interstadial 1 that started around 14.6 cal kBP in the highly resolved West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core on its most recent age scale WD2014 (Marcott et al. 2014; Bauska et al. 2016; Sigl et al. 2016).”
From The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP) (2020) · cites this paper as Bauska et al. 2016
The section on processes controlling atmospheric carbon isotopes reports a rapid CO2 rise in the WAIS Divide record at the onset of the Bølling–Allerød, around 14.6 ka. Our copy does not establish that a 14C trough preceded that rise or identify WD2014 as the age scale; searches for the trough and age scale found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Reimer, P. J., Austin, W. E. N., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Blackwell, P. G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Butzin, M., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., Friedrich, M., et al. (2020) · Radiocarbon · doi:10.1017/rdc.2020.41 · Cited by 7,900 · see citing works
“The 14 C trough appears slightly earlier than the abrupt rise in atmospheric CO 2 at the start of Greenland Interstadial 1 that started around 14.6 cal kBP in the highly resolved West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core on its most recent age scale WD2014 (Marcott et al. 2014; Bauska et al. 2016; Sigl et al. 2016).”
BackgroundInfluentialMcConnell, J. R., Burke, A., Dunbar, N. W., Köhler, P., Thomas, J. L., Arienzo, M. M., Chellman, N. J., Maselli, O. J., Sigl, M., Adkins, J. F., et al. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1705595114 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Bauska, T. K., Baggenstos, D., Brook, E. J., Mix, A. C., Marcott, S. A., Petrenko, V. V., Schaefer, H., Severinghaus, J. P., & Lee, J. E.
- Affiliations
- Oregon State University (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Rochester (US)
- National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NZ)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2016-03-14
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 3465-3470
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4822573
- OpenAlex
- W2298919510
- Semantic Scholar
- c816b43883d7041747754814372959d436186b23
- Cited by
- 180
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5
- FWCI
- 9.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NSF | GEO | POLAR | Division of Antarctic Sciences (ANT 0838936, ANT 0839031)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Keywords
- atmospheric CO2, carbon isotopes, last deglaciation, glacial-interglacial cycles, organic carbon oxidation, air-sea gas exchange, Southern Ocean, Bølling, Holocene, methane, seawater temperature, carbon source
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