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Compound effects of Antarctic sea ice on atmospheric p CO 2 change during glacial–interglacial cycle
Author(s) -
KurahashiNakamura T.,
AbeOuchi A.,
Yamanaka Y.,
Misumi K.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2007gl030898
Subject(s) - interglacial , last glacial maximum , sea ice , climatology , glacial period , biogeochemical cycle , oceanography , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , geology , carbon cycle , cryosphere , ecosystem , geomorphology , chemistry , ecology , environmental chemistry , biology
The cause of low atmospheric CO 2 concentrations during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is important for understanding the role of the carbon cycle in climatic variation. We used an ocean general circulation model, coupled with a biogeochemical model, to examine the effect of sea‐ice expansion in the Southern Ocean on atmospheric CO 2 concentration. We newly considered a possible additional effect of sea‐ice expansion in reducing biological activity as well as the effect of reduced gas‐exchange. We propose that the new effect might have had an opposite operation and canceled the gas‐exchange effect. Although there are some uncertainties arising from the absence of explicit sea‐ice model in this study, these results suggest that sea‐ice expansion might be far from the principal mechanism for low CO 2 concentration during the LGM.