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Two-phase change in CO2, Antarctic temperature and global climate during Termination II

Nature Geoscience volume 6, pages 1062–1065 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The end of the Last Glacial Maximum (Termination I), roughly 20 thousand years ago (ka), was marked by cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, a weakening of the Asian monsoon, a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and warming over Antarctica. The sequence of events associated with the previous glacial–interglacial transition (Termination II), roughly 136 ka, is less well constrained. Here we present high-resolution records of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and isotopic composition of N2—an atmospheric temperature proxy—from air bubbles in the EPICA Dome C ice core that span Termination II. We find that atmospheric CO2 concentrations and Antarctic temperature started increasing in phase around 136 ka, but in a second phase of Termination II, from 130.5 to 129 ka, the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations lagged that of Antarctic temperature unequivocally. We suggest that during this second phase, the intensification of the low-latitude hydrological cycle resulted in the development of a CO2 sink, which counteracted the CO2 outgassing from the Southern Hemisphere oceans over this period.

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Figure 1: Comparison of EDC δ15N and Tsite records on the EDC3 timescale.
Figure 2: Sequence of events over Termination II.
Figure 3: Sequence of events over Termination I.

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Acknowledgements

This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint ESF (European Science Foundation)/EC scientific programme, funded by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The main logistic support was provided by IPEV and PNRA (at Dome C). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 243908, ‘Past4Future: Climate change—Learning from the past climate’ and from the French ANBR CITRONNIER. This manuscript benefited from fruitful discussions with C. Waelbroeck, E. Michel, D. Paillard, M. F. Sanchez-Goni, L. Bazin, M. Guillevic, H. Fischer and J. Schmitt. This is LSCE manuscript number 5036.

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  1. G. Dreyfus

    Present address: Present address: US Department of Energy, Office of International Affairs, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20585, USA,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, UMR 8212, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    A. Landais, G. Dreyfus, E. Capron, J. Jouzel, V. Masson-Delmotte, D. M. Roche, F. Prié, N. Caillon & A. Lourantou

  2. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA

    G. Dreyfus

  3. British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

    E. Capron

  4. Earth & Climate Cluster, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    D. M. Roche

  5. UJF—Grenoble 1 / CNRS, Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement (LGGE) UMR 5183, Grenoble F-38041, France

    J. Chappellaz, A. Lourantou, F. Parrenin, D. Raynaud & G. Teste

  6. Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

    M. Leuenberger

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Contributions

A. Landais, J.J. and V.M-D. formulated the project. A. Landais, G.D., E.C., F. Prié and G.T. performed the measurements. A. Landais, G.D., E.C., J.J., V.M-D., D.M.R., N.C., J.C., M.L., A. Lourantou, F. Parrenin and D.R. performed the analysis and contributed to the writing and polishing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to A. Landais.

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Landais, A., Dreyfus, G., Capron, E. et al. Two-phase change in CO2, Antarctic temperature and global climate during Termination II. Nature Geosci 6, 1062–1065 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1985

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