Biological and physical controls in the Southern Ocean on past millennial-scale atmospheric CO2 changes

Julia Gottschalk (), Luke C. Skinner, Jörg Lippold, Hendrik Vogel, Norbert Frank, Samuel L. Jaccard and Claire Waelbroeck
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Julia Gottschalk: Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge
Luke C. Skinner: Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, University of Cambridge
Jörg Lippold: Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
Hendrik Vogel: Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
Norbert Frank: Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg
Samuel L. Jaccard: Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
Claire Waelbroeck: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CNRS-CEA-UVSQ, Université de Paris-Saclay

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Millennial-scale climate changes during the last glacial period and deglaciation were accompanied by rapid changes in atmospheric CO2 that remain unexplained. While the role of the Southern Ocean as a 'control valve' on ocean–atmosphere CO2 exchange has been emphasized, the exact nature of this role, in particular the relative contributions of physical (for example, ocean dynamics and air–sea gas exchange) versus biological processes (for example, export productivity), remains poorly constrained. Here we combine reconstructions of bottom-water [O2], export production and 14C ventilation ages in the sub-Antarctic Atlantic, and show that atmospheric CO2 pulses during the last glacial- and deglacial periods were consistently accompanied by decreases in the biological export of carbon and increases in deep-ocean ventilation via southern-sourced water masses. These findings demonstrate how the Southern Ocean's 'organic carbon pump' has exerted a tight control on atmospheric CO2, and thus global climate, specifically via a synergy of both physical and biological processes.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11539

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