Abstract
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 years1,2,3,4. 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 data1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 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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Acknowledgements
This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission scientific program, funded by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The main logistic support was provided by IPEV and PNRA (at Dome C). We thank the technical team on the field and at both laboratories, G. Hausammann for helping with the CO2 measurements, and B. Stauffer, J. Schwander, M. Leuenberger, F. Joos, V. Masson-Delmotte, G. Dreyfus and C. Körner for their input. We acknowledge financial support by the Swiss NSF, the University of Bern, the Swiss Federal Agency of Energy and the French ANR (Agence nationale pour la Recherche; programme PICC). This is EPICA publication no. 194.
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Supplementary information
The file contains Supplementary Notes, Supplementary Tables 1-4 and Supplementary Figures S1-S4 with Legends.
This file provides details concerning the measurement methods, the intercomparison between Bern and Grenoble, the time relationship between CO2 and Antarctic temperature anomaly in general as well as during ice age terminations. Furthermore, it discusses the lowest CO2 concentrations, the choice of the intervals for figure 2 and includes a table comparing the events detected in stage 18 with the AIM events during stage 3. (PDF 413 kb)
The file contains Supplementary Table.
The new EPICA Dome C CO2 data (prior than 650 kyr) measured at the University of Bern and at LGGE in Grenoble are listed against depth and the corresponding EDC3_gas_a age in table 1. Table 2 contains all CO2 data which are discussed in the paper synchronized on the EDC3_gas_a age scale. Finally, table 3 shows a composite CO2 record over the last 800,000 years. (XLS 320 kb)
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Lüthi, D., Le Floch, M., Bereiter, B. et al. High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000–800,000 years before present. Nature 453, 379–382 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06949
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06949
