Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition

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Abstract

The dominant period of Pleistocene glacial cycles changed during the mid-Pleistocene from 40,000 years to 100,000 years, for as yet unknown reasons. Here we present a 2.1-million-year record of sea surface partial pressure of CO2 (Pco2), based on boron isotopes in planktic foraminifer shells, which suggests that the atmospheric partial pressure of CO2 (pco2) was relatively stable before the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. Glacial Pco2 was approximately 31 microatmospheres higher before the transition (more than 1 million years ago), but interglacial Pco2 was similar to that of late Pleistocene interglacial cycles (<450,000 years ago). These estimates are consistent with a close linkage between atmospheric CO2 concentration and global climate, but the lack of a gradual decrease in interglacial Pco2 does not support the suggestion that a long-term drawdown of atmospheric CO2 was the main cause of the climate transition.

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High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000-800,000 years before present.

Dieter Lüthi, Martine Le Floch, Bernhard Bereiter … (2008)

Changes in past atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations can be determined by measuring the composition of air trapped in ice cores from Antarctica. So far, the Antarctic Vostok and EPICA Dome C ice cores have provided a composite record of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 650,000 years. Here we present results of the lowest 200 m of the Dome C ice core, extending the record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration by two complete glacial cycles to 800,000 yr before present. From previously published data and the present work, we find that atmospheric carbon dioxide is strongly correlated with Antarctic temperature throughout eight glacial cycles but with significantly lower concentrations between 650,000 and 750,000 yr before present. Carbon dioxide levels are below 180 parts per million by volume (p.p.m.v.) for a period of 3,000 yr during Marine Isotope Stage 16, possibly reflecting more pronounced oceanic carbon storage. We report the lowest carbon dioxide concentration measured in an ice core, which extends the pre-industrial range of carbon dioxide concentrations during the late Quaternary by about 10 p.p.m.v. to 172-300 p.p.m.v.

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An alternative astronomical calibration of the lower Pleistocene timescale based on ODP Site 677

N J Shackleton, W. R. PELTIER, A. Berger (1990)

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 677 provided excellent material for high resolution stable isotope analysis of both benthonic and planktonic foraminifera through the entire Pleistocene and upper Pliocene. The oxygen isotope record is readily correlated with the SPECMAP stack (Imbrieet al.1984) and with the record from DSDP 607 (Ruddimanet al.1986) but a significantly better match with orbital models is obtained by departing from the timescale proposed by these authors below Stage 16 (620 000 years). It is the stronger contribution from the precession signal in the record from ODP Site 677 that provides the basis for the revised timescale. Our proposed modification to the timescale would imply that the currently adopted radiometric dates for the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary, the Jaramillo and Olduvai Subchrons and the Gauss–Matuyama boundary underestimate their true astronomical ages by between 5 and 7%.