Episodic release of CO<sub>2</sub> from the high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean during the last 135 kyr.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28224985.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms14498 and PMC identifier 5322501.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Antarctic ice cores document glacial-interglacial and millennial-scale variability in atmospheric pCO<sub>2</sub> over the past 800 kyr. The ocean, as the largest active carbon reservoir on this timescale, is thought to have played a dominant role in these pCO<sub>2</sub> fluctuations, but it remains unclear how and where in the ocean CO<sub>2</sub> was stored during glaciations and released during (de)glacial millennial-scale climate events. The evolution of surface ocean pCO<sub>2</sub> in key locations can therefore provide important clues for understanding the ocean's role in Pleistocene carbon cycling. Here we present a 135-kyr record of shallow subsurface pCO<sub>2</sub> and nutrient levels from the Norwegian Sea, an area of intense CO<sub>2</sub> uptake from the atmosphere today. Our results suggest that the Norwegian Sea probably acted as a CO<sub>2</sub> source towards the end of Heinrich stadials HS1, HS4 and HS11, and may have contributed to the increase in atmospheric pCO<sub>2</sub> at these times.