Eocene/Oligocene ocean de-acidification linked to Antarctic glaciation by sea-level fall

Agostino Merico (), Toby Tyrrell and Paul A. Wilson
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Agostino Merico: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Toby Tyrrell: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Paul A. Wilson: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK

Nature, 2008, vol. 452, issue 7190, 979-982

Abstract: View from the boundary One of the most dramatic perturbations to the Earth system during the past 100 million years was the rapid onset of Antarctic glaciation near the Eocene/Oligocene boundary some 34 million years ago. This climate transition was accompanied by a deepening of the calcite compensation depth — the ocean depth at which the rate of calcium carbonate input from surface waters equals the rate of dissolution — but the mechanism linking glaciation to the deepening of calcite compensation depth remains unclear. Merico et al. use a global biogeochemical box model to test competing hypotheses put forward to explain the Eocene/Oligocene transition. They find that only shelf-to-deep-sea carbonate partitioning can explain the observed changes in both carbon isotope composition and calcium carbonate accumulation at the sea floor. This work sheds new light on the mechanisms linking glaciation and ocean acidity change during this important climate transition.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06853

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