scholarly journals Asymmetry of extreme Cenozoic climate–carbon cycle events

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (33) ◽  
pp. eabg6864
Author(s):  
Constantin W. Arnscheidt ◽  
Daniel H. Rothman

The history of Earth’s climate and carbon cycle is preserved in deep-sea foraminiferal carbon and oxygen isotope records. Here, we show that the sub-million-year fluctuations in both records have exhibited negatively skewed non-Gaussian tails throughout much of the Cenozoic era (66 Ma to present), suggesting an intrinsic asymmetry that favors “hyperthermal-like” extreme events of abrupt global warming and oxidation of organic carbon. We show that this asymmetry is quantitatively consistent with a general mechanism of self-amplification that can be modeled using stochastic multiplicative noise. A numerical climate–carbon cycle model in which the amplitude of random biogeochemical fluctuations increases at higher temperatures reproduces the data well and can further explain the apparent pacing of past extreme warming events by changes in orbital parameters. Our results also suggest that, as anthropogenic warming continues, Earth’s climate may become more susceptible to extreme warming events on time scales of tens of thousands of years.

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (40) ◽  
pp. e2103511118
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Fakhraee ◽  
Lidya G. Tarhan ◽  
Noah J. Planavsky ◽  
Christopher T. Reinhard

Marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC), the largest pool of reduced carbon in the oceans, plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and contributes to the regulation of atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide abundances. Despite its importance in global biogeochemical cycles, the long-term history of the marine DOC reservoir is poorly constrained. Nonetheless, significant changes to the size of the oceanic DOC reservoir through Earth’s history have been commonly invoked to explain changes to ocean chemistry, carbon cycling, and marine ecology. Here, we present a revised view of the evolution of marine DOC concentrations using a mechanistic carbon cycle model that can reproduce DOC concentrations in both oxic and anoxic modern environments. We use this model to demonstrate that the overall size of the marine DOC reservoir has likely undergone very little variation through Earth’s history, despite major changes in the redox state of the ocean–atmosphere system and the nature and efficiency of the biological carbon pump. A relatively static marine DOC reservoir across Earth’s history renders it unlikely that major changes in marine DOC concentrations have been responsible for driving massive repartitioning of surface carbon or the large carbon isotope excursions observed in Earth’s stratigraphic record and casts doubt on previously hypothesized links between marine DOC levels and the emergence and radiation of early animals.


Tellus B ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Brovkin ◽  
Stephan J. Lorenz ◽  
Johann Jungclaus ◽  
Thomas Raddatz ◽  
Claudia Timmreck ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-326
Author(s):  
Nan WU ◽  
Honglin HE ◽  
Li ZHANG ◽  
Xiaoli REN ◽  
Yuanchun ZHOU ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosanna Greenop ◽  
Mathis P. Hain ◽  
Sindia M. Sosdian ◽  
Kevin I. C. Oliver ◽  
Philip Goodwin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The boron isotope composition (δ11B) of foraminiferal calcite reflects the pH and the boron isotope composition of the seawater the foraminifer grew in. For pH reconstructions, the δ11B of seawater must therefore be known, but information on this parameter is limited. Here we reconstruct Neogene seawater δ11B based on the δ11B difference between paired measurements of planktic and benthic foraminifera and an estimate of the coeval water column pH gradient from their δ13C values. Carbon cycle model simulations underscore that the ΔpH–Δδ13C relationship is relatively insensitive to ocean and carbon cycle changes, validating our approach. Our reconstructions suggest that δ11Bsw was  ∼  37.5 ‰ during the early and middle Miocene (roughly 23–12 Ma) and rapidly increased during the late Miocene (between 12 and 5 Ma) towards the modern value of 39.61 ‰. Strikingly, this pattern is similar to the evolution of the seawater isotope composition of Mg, Li and Ca, suggesting a common forcing mechanism. Based on the observed direction of change, we hypothesize that an increase in secondary mineral formation during continental weathering affected the isotope composition of riverine input to the ocean since 14 Ma.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Lade ◽  
Jonathan F. Donges ◽  
Ingo Fetzer ◽  
John M. Anderies ◽  
Christian Beer ◽  
...  

Abstract. Changes to climate–carbon cycle feedbacks may significantly affect the Earth system's response to greenhouse gas emissions. These feedbacks are usually analysed from numerical output of complex and arguably opaque Earth system models. Here, we construct a stylised global climate–carbon cycle model, test its output against comprehensive Earth system models, and investigate the strengths of its climate–carbon cycle feedbacks analytically. The analytical expressions we obtain aid understanding of carbon cycle feedbacks and the operation of the carbon cycle. Specific results include that different feedback formalisms measure fundamentally the same climate–carbon cycle processes; temperature dependence of the solubility pump, biological pump, and CO2 solubility all contribute approximately equally to the ocean climate–carbon feedback; and concentration–carbon feedbacks may be more sensitive to future climate change than climate–carbon feedbacks. Simple models such as that developed here also provide workbenches for simple but mechanistically based explorations of Earth system processes, such as interactions and feedbacks between the planetary boundaries, that are currently too uncertain to be included in comprehensive Earth system models.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 4531-4544 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bala ◽  
K. Caldeira ◽  
A. Mirin ◽  
M. Wickett ◽  
C. Delire

Abstract A coupled climate and carbon (CO2) cycle model is used to investigate the global climate and carbon cycle changes out to the year 2300 that would occur if CO2 emissions from all the currently estimated fossil fuel resources were released to the atmosphere. By the year 2300, the global climate warms by about 8 K and atmospheric CO2 reaches 1423 ppmv. The warming is higher than anticipated because the sensitivity to radiative forcing increases as the simulation progresses. In this simulation, the rate of emissions peaks at over 30 Pg C yr−1 early in the twenty-second century. Even at the year 2300, nearly 50% of cumulative emissions remain in the atmosphere. Both soils and living biomass are net carbon sinks throughout the simulation. Despite having relatively low climate sensitivity and strong carbon uptake by the land biosphere, these model projections suggest severe long-term consequences for global climate if all the fossil fuel carbon is ultimately released into the atmosphere.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Scholze ◽  
Michael Buchwitz ◽  
Wouter Dorigo ◽  
Luis Guanter ◽  
Shaun Quegan

Abstract. The global carbon cycle is an important component of the Earth system and it interacts with the hydrological, energy and nutrient cycles as well as ecosystem dynamics. A better understanding of the global carbon cycle is required for improved projections of climate change including corresponding changes in water and food resources and for the verification 5 of measures to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. An improved understanding of the carbon cycle can be achieved by model-data fusion or data assimilation systems, which integrate observations relevant to the carbon cycle into coupled carbon, water, energy and nutrient models. Hence, the ingredients for such systems are a carbon cycle model, an algorithm for the assimilation, and systematic and 10 well error-characterized observations relevant to the carbon cycle. Relevant observations for assimilation include various in-situ measurements in the atmosphere (e.g. concentrations of CO2 and other gases) and on land (e.g. fluxes of carbon water and energy, carbon stocks) as well as remote sensing observations (e.g. atmospheric composition, vegetation and surface properties).We briefly review the different existing data assimilation techniques and contrast them to model 15 benchmarking and evaluation efforts (which also rely on observations). A common requirement for all assimilation techniques is a full description of the observational data properties. Uncertainty estimates of the observations are as important as the observations themselves because they similarly determine the outcome of such assimilation systems. Hence, this article reviews the requirements of data assimilation systems on observations and provides a non-exhaustive overview of current 20 observations and their uncertainties for use in terrestrial carbon cycle data assimilation. We report on progress since the review of model-data synthesis in terrestrial carbon observations by Raupach et al. (2005) emphasising the rapid advance in relevant space-based observations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-159
Author(s):  
J. F. Tjiputra ◽  
O. H. Otterå

Abstract. Using a fully coupled global climate-carbon cycle model, we assess the potential role of volcanic eruptions on future projection of climate change and its associated carbon cycle feedback. The volcanic-like forcings are applied together with business-as-usual IPCC-A2 carbon emissions scenario. We show that very large volcanic eruptions similar to Tambora lead to short-term substantial global cooling. However, over a long period, smaller but more frequent eruptions, such as Pinatubo, would have a stronger impact on future climate change. In a scenario where the volcanic external forcings are prescribed with a five-year frequency, the induced cooling immediately lower the global temperature by more than one degree before return to the warming trend. Therefore, the climate change is approximately delayed by several decades and by the end of the 21st century, the warming is still below two degrees when compared to the present day period. The cooler climate reduces the terrestrial heterotrophic respiration in the northern high latitude and increases net primary production in the tropics, which contributes to more than 45% increase in accumulated carbon uptake over land. The increased solubility of CO2 gas in seawater associated with cooler SST is offset by reduced CO2 partial pressure gradient between ocean and atmosphere, which results in small changes in net ocean carbon uptake. Similarly, there is nearly no change in the seawater buffer capacity simulated between the different volcanic scenarios. Our study shows that even in the relatively extreme scenario where large volcanic eruptions occur every five-years period, the induced cooling only leads to a reduction of 46 ppmv atmospheric CO2 concentration as compared to the reference projection of 878 ppmv, at the end of the 21st century. With respect to sulphur injection geoengineering method, our study suggest that small scale but frequent mitigation is more efficient than the opposite. Moreover, the longer we delay, the more difficult it would be to counteract climate change.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (19) ◽  
pp. 5232-5250 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Gregory ◽  
C. D. Jones ◽  
P. Cadule ◽  
P. Friedlingstein

Abstract Perturbations to the carbon cycle could constitute large feedbacks on future changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration and climate. This paper demonstrates how carbon cycle feedback can be expressed in formally similar ways to climate feedback, and thus compares their magnitudes. The carbon cycle gives rise to two climate feedback terms: the concentration–carbon feedback, resulting from the uptake of carbon by land and ocean as a biogeochemical response to the atmospheric CO2 concentration, and the climate–carbon feedback, resulting from the effect of climate change on carbon fluxes. In the earth system models of the Coupled Climate–Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project (C4MIP), climate–carbon feedback on warming is positive and of a similar size to the cloud feedback. The concentration–carbon feedback is negative; it has generally received less attention in the literature, but in magnitude it is 4 times larger than the climate–carbon feedback and more uncertain. The concentration–carbon feedback is the dominant uncertainty in the allowable CO2 emissions that are consistent with a given CO2 concentration scenario. In modeling the climate response to a scenario of CO2 emissions, the net carbon cycle feedback is of comparable size and uncertainty to the noncarbon–climate response. To quantify simulated carbon cycle feedbacks satisfactorily, a radiatively coupled experiment is needed, in addition to the fully coupled and biogeochemically coupled experiments, which are referred to as coupled and uncoupled in C4MIP. The concentration–carbon and climate–carbon feedbacks do not combine linearly, and the concentration–carbon feedback is dependent on scenario and time.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Karabuschenko

This paper presents the history of the development of the Russophobic tradition of the collective West, which it used in its political and ideological interests. Russophobia is a chimera of Western propaganda, based on myths about the superiority of Western civilization and the chronic backwardness of Russians. The tradition indicated by the author is assessed as a kind of pseudo-ideological chimera, which permanently arises in the national enemies and geopolitical competitors of Russia as the main ideological means in the general mechanism of deterring the imaginary "Russian threat". It is known that Russia itself has improved the political space of Eastern Europe and Asia, in accordance with the understanding of its goals and objectives. And most often, it was this independence that caused discontent and indignation of her opponents. It is intended for all those who are interested in the political history and modern politics of Russia.


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