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The response of atmospheric nitrous oxide to climate variations during the last glacial period
Author(s) -
Schilt Adrian,
Baumgartner Matthias,
Eicher Olivier,
Chappellaz Jérôme,
Schwander Jakob,
Fischer Hubertus,
Stocker Thomas F.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/grl.50380
Subject(s) - glacial period , interglacial , ice core , stadial , abrupt climate change , holocene , geology , climate change , climatology , period (music) , paleoclimatology , physical geography , oceanography , global warming , effects of global warming , geography , geomorphology , physics , acoustics
Detailed insight into natural variations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N 2 O) in response to changes in the Earth's climate system is provided by new measurements along the ice core of the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP). The presented record reaches from the early Holocene back into the previous interglacial with a mean time resolution of about 75years. Between 11 and 120kyrBP, atmospheric N 2 O concentrations react substantially to the last glacial‐interglacial transition (Termination 1) and millennial time scale climate variations of the last glacial period. For long‐lasting Dansgaard/Oeschger (DO) events, the N 2 O increase precedes Greenland temperature change by several hundred years with an increase rate of about 0.8–1.3ppbv/century, which accelerates to about 3.8–10.7ppbv/century at the time of the rapid warming in Greenland. Within each bundle of DO events, the new record further reveals particularly low N 2 O concentrations at the approximate time of Heinrich events. This suggests that the response of marine and/or terrestrial N 2 O emissions on a global scale are different for stadials with and without Heinrich events.