Premium
High‐resolution Holocene N 2 O ice core record and its relationship with CH 4 and CO 2
Author(s) -
Flückiger Jacqueline,
Monnin Eric,
Stauffer Bernhard,
Schwander Jakob,
Stocker Thomas F.,
Chappellaz Jérôme,
Raynaud Dominique,
Barnola JeanMarc
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/2001gb001417
Subject(s) - ice core , holocene , interglacial , geology , temperature record , glacial period , physical geography , carbon dioxide , cryosphere , climatology , oceanography , atmospheric sciences , sea ice , paleontology , chemistry , geography , organic chemistry
Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) concentration records exist for the last 1000 years and for time periods of rapid climatic changes like the transition from the last glacial to today's interglacial and for one of the fast climate variations during the last ice age. Little is known, however, about possible N 2 O variations during the more stable climate of the present interglacial (Holocene) spanning the last 11 thousand years. Here we fill this gap with a high‐resolution N 2 O record measured along the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Dome C Antarctic ice core. On the same ice we obtained high‐resolution methane and carbon dioxide records. This provides the unique opportunity to compare variations of the three most important greenhouse gases (after water vapor) without any uncertainty in their relative timing. The CO 2 and CH 4 records are in good agreement with previous measurements on other ice cores. The N 2 O concentration started to decrease in the early Holocene and reached minimum values around 8 ka (<260 ppbv) before a slow increase to its preindustrial concentration of ∼265 ppbv.