Antarctic Ice Core reveals changes in CO2 concentration over the past thousand years

On April 27th, Natural Geoscience (Nature Geoscience) magazine published an article entitled "links between atmospheric CO2, terrestrial carbon banks and climate in the past millennia" (Links between Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, the Land Carbon Reservoir and Climateover the Past Millennium). According to the reconstruction data of CO2 concentrations over the past millennium, the main reason for CO2 concentration fluctuations on a time scale from decades to centuries is the feedback mechanism between climate and terrestrial carbon banks.

The stability of terrestrial carbon sinks is closely related to climate change, but the feedback mechanism between carbon and climate on both modern and millennium scales has not been determined.

Based on high-resolution carbon isotope data released by the West Antarctic Ice Core Research Program (the Antarctic WAIS Divide Ice Core project), researchers from the United States, Switzerland and South Korea used deconvolution methods to analyze atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the past millennium. The results show that the main law of the change of CO2 concentration from 755 to 1850 is as follows: from the beginning of 112th century to the beginning of 19th century, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere decreased slowly. The concentration of 2CO2 showed Interdecadal fluctuation.

The process of industrialization and the change of human land use patterns during the period of 755-1850 led to the continuous increase of man-made CO2 emissions. The results of this study show that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere decreased slowly from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Therefore, there must be natural carbon sinks such as peatlands to offset man-made CO2 emissions. The results show that terrestrial organic carbon storage can well explain the variability of C13 in atmospheric CO2 and CO2 concentration from 755 to 1850.

The researchers also found that climate change is the main driver of changes in terrestrial carbon stocks on a decades-long time scale, and the contribution of climate change varies in different regions. The temperature change in the Arctic dominates the change of terrestrial organic carbon storage. Climate warming leads to the decline of peatland, the release of carbon sealed in permafrost, and the enhancement of northern forest and soil respiration, which in turn affects terrestrial organic carbon storage. There is a positive correlation between Arctic climate warming and the decrease of terrestrial organic carbon stocks. The second is the temperature change in tropical Africa, where climate-carbon feedback can explain the changes in some terrestrial organic carbon stocks; climate-carbon feedback mechanisms in other regions (such as North America and Asia) also contribute to the change in terrestrial organic carbon stocks.

The researchers also found that climate change is the main driver of changes in terrestrial carbon stocks on a decades-long time scale, and the contribution of climate change varies in different regions. The temperature change in the Arctic dominates the change of terrestrial organic carbon storage. Climate warming leads to the decline of peatland, the release of carbon sealed in permafrost, and the enhancement of northern forest and soil respiration, which in turn affects terrestrial organic carbon storage. There is a positive correlation between Arctic climate warming and the decrease of terrestrial organic carbon stocks. The second is the

researchers from the United States, Switzerland and South Korea used deconvolution methods to analyze atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the past millennium. The results show that the main law of the change of CO2 concentration from 755 to 1850 is as follows: from the beginning of 112th century to the beginning of 19th century, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere decreased slowly. The concentration of 2CO2 showed Interdecadal fluctuation.

The process of industrialization and the change of human land use patterns during the period of 755-1850 led to the continuous increase of man-made CO2 emissions. The results of this study show that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere decreased slowly from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Therefore, there must be natural carbon sinks such as peatlands to offset man-made CO2 emissions. The results show that terrestrial organic carbon storage can well explain the variability of C13 in atmospheric CO2 and CO2 concentration from 755 to 1850.

The researchers also found that climate change is the main driver of changes in terrestrial carbon stocks on a decades-long time scale, and the contribution of climate change varies in different regions. The temperature change in the Arctic dominates the change of terrestrial organic carbon storage. Climate warming leads to the decline of peatland, the release of carbon sealed in permafrost, and the enhancement of northern forest and soil respiration, which in turn affects terrestrial organic carbon storage. There is a positive correlation between Arctic climate war