IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms11539.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biological and physical controls in the Southern Ocean on past millennial-scale atmospheric CO2 changes

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Gottschalk

    (Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge)

  • Luke C. Skinner

    (Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge)

  • Jörg Lippold

    (Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern)

  • Hendrik Vogel

    (Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern)

  • Norbert Frank

    (Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg)

  • Samuel L. Jaccard

    (Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern)

  • Claire Waelbroeck

    (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CNRS-CEA-UVSQ, Université de Paris-Saclay)

Abstract

Millennial-scale climate changes during the last glacial period and deglaciation were accompanied by rapid changes in atmospheric CO2 that remain unexplained. While the role of the Southern Ocean as a 'control valve' on ocean–atmosphere CO2 exchange has been emphasized, the exact nature of this role, in particular the relative contributions of physical (for example, ocean dynamics and air–sea gas exchange) versus biological processes (for example, export productivity), remains poorly constrained. Here we combine reconstructions of bottom-water [O2], export production and 14C ventilation ages in the sub-Antarctic Atlantic, and show that atmospheric CO2 pulses during the last glacial- and deglacial periods were consistently accompanied by decreases in the biological export of carbon and increases in deep-ocean ventilation via southern-sourced water masses. These findings demonstrate how the Southern Ocean's 'organic carbon pump' has exerted a tight control on atmospheric CO2, and thus global climate, specifically via a synergy of both physical and biological processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Gottschalk & Luke C. Skinner & Jörg Lippold & Hendrik Vogel & Norbert Frank & Samuel L. Jaccard & Claire Waelbroeck, 2016. "Biological and physical controls in the Southern Ocean on past millennial-scale atmospheric CO2 changes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11539
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11539
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11539
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms11539?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastien Moreau & Tore Hattermann & Laura Steur & Hanna M. Kauko & Heidi Ahonen & Murat Ardelan & Philipp Assmy & Melissa Chierici & Sebastien Descamps & Tilman Dinter & Tone Falkenhaug & Agneta Fran, 2023. "Wind-driven upwelling of iron sustains dense blooms and food webs in the eastern Weddell Gyre," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Zhengquan Yao & Xuefa Shi & Qiuzhen Yin & Samuel Jaccard & Yanguang Liu & Zhengtang Guo & Sergey A. Gorbarenko & Kunshan Wang & Tianyu Chen & Zhipeng Wu & Qingyun Nan & Jianjun Zou & Hongmin Wang & Ji, 2024. "Ice sheet and precession controlled subarctic Pacific productivity and upwelling over the last 550,000 years," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Anne Willem Omta & Christopher L. Follett & Jonathan M. Lauderdale & Raffaele Ferrari, 2024. "Carbon isotope budget indicates biological disequilibrium dominated ocean carbon storage at the Last Glacial Maximum," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.