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Atmospheric CO 2 over the last 1000 years: A high‐resolution record from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core
Author(s) -
Ahn Jinho,
Brook Edward J.,
Mitchell Logan,
Rosen Julia,
McConnell Joseph R.,
Taylor Kendrick,
Etheridge David,
Rubino Mauro
Publication year - 2012
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 - 10.1029/2011gb004247
Subject(s) - ice core , climatology , antarctic ice sheet , paleoclimatology , ice sheet , period (music) , geology , cryosphere , dendrochronology , climate change , physical geography , sea ice , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , geography , paleontology , physics , acoustics
We report a decadally resolved record of atmospheric CO 2 concentration for the last 1000 years, obtained from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide shallow ice core. The most prominent feature of the pre‐industrial period is a rapid ∼7 ppm decrease of CO 2 in a span of ∼20–50 years at ∼1600 A.D. This observation confirms the timing of an abrupt atmospheric CO 2 decrease of ∼10 ppm observed for that time period in the Law Dome ice core CO 2 records, but the true magnitude of the decrease remains unclear. Atmospheric CO 2 variations over the time period 1000–1800 A.D. are statistically correlated with northern hemispheric climate and tropical Indo‐Pacific sea surface temperature. However, the exact relationship between CO 2 and climate remains elusive due to regional climate variations and/or uneven geographical data density of paleoclimate records. We observe small differences of 0 ∼ 2% (0 ∼ 6 ppm) among the high‐precision CO 2 records from the Law Dome, EPICA Dronning Maud Land and WAIS Divide Antarctic ice cores. However, those records share common trends of CO 2 change on centennial to multicentennial time scales, and clearly show that atmospheric CO 2 has been increasing above preindustrial levels since ∼1850 A.D.