Ventilation of the deep Southern Ocean and deglacial CO$_2$ rise

Luke C. Skinner (1) , Stewart J. Fallon (2) , C. Waelbroeck (3) , Elisabeth Michel (3) , Stephen Barker (4)

1 Department of Earth Sciences [Cambridge, UK]
2 RSES - Research School of Earth Sciences [Canberra]
3 PALEOCEAN - Paléocéanographie
4 School of Earth and Ocean Sciences [Cardiff]

Past glacial-interglacial increases in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO$_2$ ) are thought to arise from the rapid release of CO$_2$ sequestered in the deep sea, primarily via the Southern Ocean. Here, we present radiocarbon evidence from the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean that strongly supports this hypothesis. We show that during the last glacial period, deep water circulating around Antarctica was more than two timesolder than today relative to the atmosphere.During deglaciation, the dissipation of this old and presumably CO$_2$ -enriched deep water played an important role in the pulsed rise of atmospheric CO$_2$ through its variable influence on the upwelling branch of the Antarctic overturning circulation.

Domains: Environmental Sciences

Luke C. Skinner, Stewart J. Fallon, C. Waelbroeck, Elisabeth Michel, Stephen Barker. Ventilation of the deep Southern Ocean and deglacial CO$_2$ rise. Science, 2010, 328 (5892), pp.1147. ⟨10.1126/science.1183627⟩. ⟨cea-00818324⟩