Rapid late-glacial atmospheric CO2 changes reconstructed from the stomatal density record of fossil leaves
✍ Scribed by David J. Beerling; Hilary H. Birks; F. Ian Woodward
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 672 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0267-8179
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✦ Synopsis
The Younger Dryas stadia1 (1 1 000-10000 yr BP) was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation. We have reconstructed atmospheric CO, concentrations from a high-resolution sequence of fossil Salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation from Kriikenes, western Norway, using the relationship between leaf stomatal density and atmospheric CO, concentration. High Allerrad COz values (median 273 ppmv) decreased rapidly during 130-200 14C-years of the late Aller0d to ca. 210 ppmv at the start of the Younger Dryas. They then increased steadily through the Younger Dryas, reaching typical interglacial Journal of Quaternary Science values once more (ca. 275 ppmv) in the Holocene. The rapid late Allerrad decrease in CO, concentration preceded the Younger Dryas temperature drop, possibly by several decades. This striking pattern of changes has not so far been recorded unambiguously in temporally coarse measurements of atmospheric C 0 2 from ice cores. Our observed late-glacial C 0 2 changes have implications for global modelling of the ocean-atmosphere-biosphere over the last glacialinterglacial transition.