Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate

Introduction to climate dynamics and climate modelling. Equatorial convergence of india and early cenozoic climate. Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate 2004 gsa today. The correspondence between the phanerozoic records of atmospheric co2 and glacial sediments, and the revision of the. Quantifying atmospheric co2 concentrations co2atm during earths ancient greenhouse episodes is essential for accurately predicting the response of future climate to elevated co2 levels. Berner, department of geology and geophysics, yale university, new haven, connecticut 06520, usa. For the phanerozoic, estimates of atmospheric pco 2 levels fig. Every change of the climate in our lifetimes could have had natural causes. In fact, any r co2 used will imply a correlation between co 2 and. The correspondence between atmospheric co2 concentrations and globally averaged surface temperatures in the recent past suggests that this coupling may be of great antiquity. Changes in oxygen18 ratios over the last 500 million years, indicating climate change.

Empirical estimates of co2atm during paleozoic and mesozoic greenhouse climates are based primarily on the carbon isotope composition of calcium carbonate in fossil soils. Once the change in global temperature between the preindustrial period and the eocene caused by the action of all known slow feedbacks apart from those associated with the carbon cycle is removed, both the eeco and the late eocene exhibit an equilibrium climate sensitivity relative to the preindustrial period of 2. Atmospheric co2 concentrations during ancient greenhouse. Most studies incorporat ing all known climate forcings implicate. Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate article pdf available in gsa today 143. There are a myriad of other radiative forcings that affect the planets energy imbalance. These are the sources and citations used to research co2 and global temperature. Co2 and global temperature earth sciences bibliographies. Major drivers for the preindustrial ages have been variations of the sun, volcanic ashes and exhalations, relative movements of the earth towards the sun, and tectonically induced effects as for major sea currents, watersheds, and ocean. Correlation between co2 and climate this is the first of my series of short essays on common climate denier claims, so lets get into it.

Certainly, the sun is the primary driver of climate on our planet. Here, i compare 490 published proxy records of co2 spanning the ordovician to neogene with records of global cool events to evaluate the strength of co2temperature coupling over the phanerozoic last 542 my. Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate change. Changing atmospheric co 2 concentration was the primary driver of early. The two longestlived phanerozoic glaciations during the permocarboniferous and late cenozoic are the only phanerozoic intervals associated with consistently low levels of co 2 co 2 ice threshold of 5601120 ppm deconto and pollard, 2003, pollard and deconto, 2005. Since the combined effect of the greenhouse gas and other climate feedbacks for example, water vapour, lapse rate, seaice etc. Climate models have not improved in 50 years watts up. The two longestlived phanerozoic glaciations during the permocarboniferous and late cenozoic are the only phanerozoic intervals associated with consistently low levels of co 2 climate models for a co 2 ice threshold of 5601120 ppm deconto and pollard, 2003, pollard and deconto. Volcanoes, solar variations, clouds, methane, aerosols these all change the way energy enters andor leaves our climate. Parameterization for the absorption of solar radiation by o2 and co2 with application to climate studies mingdad chou, journal of climate, 1990 vol 3 pp. Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate dana royer yumpu.

So the ice core data do not support co2 as a pleistocene climate driver. Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate geological society. Not only have average global temperatures changed by as much as 10 0c but also the co2 content of the atmosphere has changed and has been at times up to 20 times higher than at present. While the geocarb carbon dioxide levels in the most part of the phanerzoic eon shows a fit and resulting climate sensitivity similar to todays values, the early phanerozoic includes a global ice age during the ordovician age combined with high atmospheric carbon contents based on the same project. The answer to that is that co2 is indeed a driver of temperature, and the climate system has been sensitive to changes in co2 in good agreement with sensitivity estimates from climate models, for the past several hundred million years park and royer, 2011. The correlation between both phenomena decrease of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and lowering of the sea level is supporting evidence that the oceans are the secondary driver of the earths climate.

Co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate dana l. Pdf co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate. Response to patrick moores what they havent told you. Note that the primary driver of glacial cycles is the milankovich orbital forcing while co 2 acts as an amplifying feedback. The role of co2 in regulating cli mate over phanerozoic timescales has recently been questioned using. This diagram summarizes phanerozoic temperatures as currently documented after scotese \ and atmospheric co2 concentr\. Pdf recent studies have purported to show a closer correspondence between reconstructed phanerozoic records of cosmic ray flux and temperature than. Pdf co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate researchgate. A revised model of atmospheric co2 over phanerozoic time. A claim often given by climate skeptics is that carbon dioxide co2 has no correlation with earths temperature.

Due to the far reaching consequences of this assertion, in this contribution we critically scrutinize different carbon. Subduction of tethyan oceanic crust with a carpet of carbonaterich pelagic sediments deposited during transit beneath the highproductivity equatorial belt resulted in a component flux of co2 delivery to the. That is to say, the temperature reconstruction cannot be used to claim that a r co2. Past climate variations should therefore correlate positively with coeval atmospheric pco 2 levels. Co2 is main driver of climate change skeptical science.

The graph comes from co2forced climate thresholds during the phanerozoic d. Co2forced climate thresholds during the phanerozoic. Co2 and climate in the quaternary period has been extensively investigated, but the role of co2 in temperature changes during the rest. Phanerozoic climate co2 appears to be the primary driver of climate over the past 600 million years. Pdf co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate dana royer. The null hypothesis of climate change has not yet been rejected after 4. Evidence for decoupling of atmospheric co2 and global climate during the phanerozoic eon. Heres what real science says about the role of co2 as. Beerling 2004a, co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic.

Hothouse and icehouse climates over the phanerozoic. The plant stomatal co2 reconstructions indicate that co2 levels of 320390 ppmv have been relatively common during warm periods in the holocene and. On evolutionary timescales, climate can affect supply of energy by biotic and abiotic effects. Download citation co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate change recent studies have purported to show a closer correspondence between. There is an alternate or supplemental way to measure past co2 changes. The earlier phanerozoic exhibits comparatively minor glaciations at the end of the devonian, in the midsilurian and for a brief period in the midcambrian, but so far as the phanerozoic goes, the. In their paper, the team of five scientists analyzed a wealth of different data to examine the role of co2 in climate over the past 540 million years. Changing atmospheric co2 concentration was the primary. Co2 as the primary driver for this most recent rise in global temperatures mann. Lessons for the future dl royer, oral presentation at aapg annual convention, denver, colorado, 2009. I share the skepticism that these people have expressed that anthropogenic co2 emissions represent the primary driver of the climate change now under way. The intergovernmental panel on climate change assumes that the inclining atmospheric co 2 concentration over recent years was almost exclusively determined by anthropogenic emissions, and this increase is made responsible for the rising temperature over the industrial era.

Pdf co2 as a primary driver of phanerozoic climate change. This period is a crucial one for the co2 theory of phanerozoic climate, since it is a time when there is quite strong evidence for low co2. Indias northward flight and collision with asia was a major driver of global tectonics in the cenozoic and, we argue, of atmospheric co2 concentration p co2 and thus global climate. Throughout phanerozoic times the earths climate has undergone repeatedly major changes. We know that the climate warmed, with a few unexplained reversals, from 18,000 years ago until 1830 ad, as a consequence of factors that have controlled climate for. Some of the best evidence for a link between biodiversity and climate. Implications of the secondary role of carbon dioxide and methane forcing on climate change. Changing atmospheric co2 concentration was the primary driver of early cenozoic climate. A revised model of atmospheric co2 over phanerozoic time r.