New Paper: Very Important Discoveries Revealed

[Andre]

Very important new paper here.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1138679v1

A little more descriptive:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/teia-csh051107.php

I think that this may fit a lot better to certain pet idea than to all the warming talk.

 

[PRDan4th]

Andre, This seems to confirm your thought that the CO2 level in the atmosphere follows global warming cycles, and then further increases global temperature, rather than causing the warming event. Now the question is "what causes the deep ocean turn over and CO2 release?" Glacial melting into the Artic sea may be the cause. I would think that cold fresh water would be less dense than salty sea water and not cause the thermal convection current required to roll-over the deep water in the artic.

 

[Andre]

I think that the explanation of this overturning in the eurekalert interview is baloney. Luckely it's not in the orginal article. Any oceanographers around for their opinion?

Yes I have an idea about it. Check out the pulsating equator thread.

Sorry I'm pushed. More later

 

[billiards]

So what's the story? I couldn't get past the abstract to that paper, but it seemed to be about a mechanism for CO2 rise after deglaciation. Obviously people have known about the phenomenon for a while now, so what's the mechanism and what has it got to do with a pulsating equator?

p.s. I just finished my exams, so now I have time on my hands and am able to spend a little more time looking through references.

 

[Andre]

Okay, I'll explain Saturday. Maxed out right now.

Hint go to the online support data at Sciencemag, copy and paste the data of the delta 14C and you got the whole story. Striking.

 

[billiards]

Has this got any connection to this story I found on the BBC news website?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6665147.stm

 

[edward]

It seems that even the ocean burps are interpreted differently by different people. This link indicates that the discharges of CO2 from the deep oceans came about as circulation patterns changed due to ice melt and warming at the end of the last ice age.

That sure does sound familiar.

The new study indicated carbon that had built up in the oceans over millennia was released in two big pulses, one about 18,000 years ago and one 13,000 years ago, said Thomas Marchitto and Scott Lehman of CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, who jointly led the study. While scientists had long known as much as 600 billion metric tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere after the last ice age, the new study is the first to clearly track CO2 from the deep ocean to the upper ocean and atmosphere and should help scientists better understand natural CO2 cycles and possible impacts of human-caused climate change.

"This is some of the clearest evidence yet that the enormous carbon release into the atmosphere during the last deglaciation was triggered by abrupt changes in deep ocean circulation," said Marchitto. Marchitto and Lehman are both faculty members in the CU-Boulder geological sciences department.

While much of the CO2 released by the oceans after the end of the last ice age about 19,000 years ago was taken up by the re-growth of forests in areas previously covered by ice sheets, enough remained in the atmosphere to pump up CO2 concentrations significantly, the authors said. Today, CO2 levels are higher than at any time in at least the past 650,000 years because of increased fossil fuel burning.

"The timing of the major CO2 release after the last ice age corresponds closely with deep-sea circulation changes caused by ice melting in the North Atlantic at that time," said Lehman. "So our study really underscores ongoing concerns about the ocean's capacity to take up fossil fuel CO2 in the future, since continued warming will almost certainly impact the mode and speed of ocean circulation."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070510164044.htm

Now if we add this to the link posted by billiards referring to the antarctic waters not absorbing CO2.

This effect had been predicted by climate scientists, and is taken into account - to some extent - by climate models. But it appears to be happening 40 years ahead of schedule.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6665147.stm

This IMO tends to make a case for current global warming.

 

[billiards]

Edward, you know, I'm really not sure that the link I posted has anything at all to do with that paper.

I managed to get a hold of a copy of the paper! So I will try to read it and make a more sensible post later.