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NAKAZAWA T. Current understanding of the global cycling of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. PROCEEDINGS OF THE JAPAN ACADEMY. SERIES B, PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 2020; 96:394-419. [PMID: 33177295 PMCID: PMC7725657 DOI: 10.2183/pjab.96.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
To address the climate change caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it is essential to understand and quantitatively elucidate their cycling on the Earth's surface. This paper first presents an overview of the global cycling of three greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), followed by a description of their variations in the atmosphere. This paper then presents the recent global budgets of these greenhouse gases estimated using two different approaches, top-down and bottom-up. Discussions on our current knowledge regarding the global cycling of the three gases are also presented.
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Kobashi T, Menviel L, Jeltsch-Thömmes A, Vinther BM, Box JE, Muscheler R, Nakaegawa T, Pfister PL, Döring M, Leuenberger M, Wanner H, Ohmura A. Volcanic influence on centennial to millennial Holocene Greenland temperature change. Sci Rep 2017; 7:1441. [PMID: 28469185 PMCID: PMC5431187 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01451-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2016] [Accepted: 03/30/2017] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Solar variability has been hypothesized to be a major driver of North Atlantic millennial-scale climate variations through the Holocene along with orbitally induced insolation change. However, another important climate driver, volcanic forcing has generally been underestimated prior to the past 2,500 years partly owing to the lack of proper proxy temperature records. Here, we reconstruct seasonally unbiased and physically constrained Greenland Summit temperatures over the Holocene using argon and nitrogen isotopes within trapped air in a Greenland ice core (GISP2). We show that a series of volcanic eruptions through the Holocene played an important role in driving centennial to millennial-scale temperature changes in Greenland. The reconstructed Greenland temperature exhibits significant millennial correlations with K+ and Na+ ions in the GISP2 ice core (proxies for atmospheric circulation patterns), and δ18O of Oman and Chinese Dongge cave stalagmites (proxies for monsoon activity), indicating that the reconstructed temperature contains hemispheric signals. Climate model simulations forced with the volcanic forcing further suggest that a series of large volcanic eruptions induced hemispheric-wide centennial to millennial-scale variability through ocean/sea-ice feedbacks. Therefore, we conclude that volcanic activity played a critical role in driving centennial to millennial-scale Holocene temperature variability in Greenland and likely beyond.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takuro Kobashi
- Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland. .,Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland. .,Renewable Energy Institute, Minato-ku, 105-0003, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Laurie Menviel
- Climate Change Research Centre and PANGEA Research Centre, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Aurich Jeltsch-Thömmes
- Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.,Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Bo M Vinther
- Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jason E Box
- Geological Survey of Greenland and Denmark, 1350, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Raimund Muscheler
- Department of Geology, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, 22362, Lund, Sweden
| | | | - Patrik L Pfister
- Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.,Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Michael Döring
- Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.,Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Markus Leuenberger
- Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.,Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Heinz Wanner
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Atsumu Ohmura
- Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
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Schilt A, Brook EJ, Bauska TK, Baggenstos D, Fischer H, Joos F, Petrenko VV, Schaefer H, Schmitt J, Severinghaus JP, Spahni R, Stocker TF. Isotopic constraints on marine and terrestrial N2O emissions during the last deglaciation. Nature 2015; 516:234-7. [PMID: 25503236 DOI: 10.1038/nature13971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2014] [Accepted: 10/13/2014] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance that has anthropogenic as well as natural marine and terrestrial sources. The tropospheric N2O concentrations have varied substantially in the past in concert with changing climate on glacial-interglacial and millennial timescales. It is not well understood, however, how N2O emissions from marine and terrestrial sources change in response to varying environmental conditions. The distinct isotopic compositions of marine and terrestrial N2O sources can help disentangle the relative changes in marine and terrestrial N2O emissions during past climate variations. Here we present N2O concentration and isotopic data for the last deglaciation, from 16,000 to 10,000 years before present, retrieved from air bubbles trapped in polar ice at Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. With the help of our data and a box model of the N2O cycle, we find a 30 per cent increase in total N2O emissions from the late glacial to the interglacial, with terrestrial and marine emissions contributing equally to the overall increase and generally evolving in parallel over the last deglaciation, even though there is no a priori connection between the drivers of the two sources. However, we find that terrestrial emissions dominated on centennial timescales, consistent with a state-of-the-art dynamic global vegetation and land surface process model that suggests that during the last deglaciation emission changes were strongly influenced by temperature and precipitation patterns over land surfaces. The results improve our understanding of the drivers of natural N2O emissions and are consistent with the idea that natural N2O emissions will probably increase in response to anthropogenic warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Schilt
- 1] College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA [2] Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Edward J Brook
- College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
| | - Thomas K Bauska
- College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
| | - Daniel Baggenstos
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California 92037, USA
| | - Hubertus Fischer
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Fortunat Joos
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Vasilii V Petrenko
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Hinrich Schaefer
- National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington 6021, New Zealand
| | - Jochen Schmitt
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jeffrey P Severinghaus
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California 92037, USA
| | - Renato Spahni
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Thomas F Stocker
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract
Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land-atmosphere and ocean-atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in the polar ice sheets is approximately 260 Tg N, dominated by nitrate in the much larger Antarctic ice sheet. Ice cores help to inform us about the natural variability of the nitrogen cycle at global and regional scale, and about the extent of disturbance in recent decades. Nitrous oxide concentrations have risen about 20 per cent in the last 200 years and are now almost certainly higher than at any time in the last 800 000 years. Nitrate concentrations recorded in Greenland ice rose by a factor of 2-3, particularly between the 1950s and 1980s, reflecting a major change in NOx emissions reaching the background atmosphere. Increases in ice cores drilled at lower latitudes can be used to validate or constrain regional emission inventories. Background ammonium concentrations in Greenland ice show no significant recent trend, although the record is very noisy, being dominated by spikes of input from biomass burning events. Neither nitrate nor ammonium shows significant recent trends in Antarctica, although their natural variations are of biogeochemical and atmospheric chemical interest. Finally, it has been found that photolysis of nitrate in the snowpack leads to significant re-emissions of NOx that can strongly impact the regional atmosphere in snow-covered areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Wolff
- British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.
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The Isotopomers of Nitrous Oxide: Analytical Considerations and Application to Resolution of Microbial Production Pathways. ADVANCES IN ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY 2012. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
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Pfeiffer M, Kaplan JO. Response of terrestrial N2O and NOxemissions to abrupt climate change. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010. [DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/9/1/012001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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Miteva V, Teacher C, Sowers T, Brenchley J. Comparison of the microbial diversity at different depths of the GISP2 Greenland ice core in relationship to deposition climates. Environ Microbiol 2009; 11:640-56. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2008.01835.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Schmittner A, Galbraith ED. Glacial greenhouse-gas fluctuations controlled by ocean circulation changes. Nature 2008; 456:373-6. [PMID: 19020618 DOI: 10.1038/nature07531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2008] [Accepted: 09/30/2008] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Earth's climate and the concentrations of the atmospheric greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and nitrous oxide (N(2)O) varied strongly on millennial timescales during past glacial periods. Large and rapid warming events in Greenland and the North Atlantic were followed by more gradual cooling, and are highly correlated with fluctuations of N(2)O as recorded in ice cores. Antarctic temperature variations, on the other hand, were smaller and more gradual, showed warming during the Greenland cold phase and cooling while the North Atlantic was warm, and were highly correlated with fluctuations in CO(2). Abrupt changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) have often been invoked to explain the physical characteristics of these Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations, but the mechanisms for the greenhouse-gas variations and their linkage to the AMOC have remained unclear. Here we present simulations with a coupled model of glacial climate and biogeochemical cycles, forced only with changes in the AMOC. The model simultaneously reproduces characteristic features of the Dansgaard-Oeschger temperature, as well as CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations. Despite significant changes in the land carbon inventory, CO(2) variations on millennial timescales are dominated by slow changes in the deep ocean inventory of biologically sequestered carbon and are correlated with Antarctic temperature and Southern Ocean stratification. In contrast, N(2)O co-varies more rapidly with Greenland temperatures owing to fast adjustments of the thermocline oxygen budget. These results suggest that ocean circulation changes were the primary mechanism that drove glacial CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations on millennial timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Schmittner
- College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
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Abstract
Isolated spikes of anomalously high concentrations of N(2)O have been reported at depths in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores corresponding to narrow time intervals over the past approximately 10(5) years. Now, using a calibrated spectrofluorimeter to map protein-bound Trp, a proxy for microbes, versus depth in the 3,053-m GISP2 ice core, we find six depths at which localized spikes of high cell concentrations coincide with N(2)O spikes. We show that the excess gases are consistent with accumulation of in situ metabolic wastes during residence times of the excess microbes in the ice. Because of sparseness of N(2)O measurements and our spectrofluorimetry versus depth, the total number of microbially produced N(2)O spikes in GISP2 is probably much larger than six. Spikes of excess methanogens coincident with CH(4) spikes are found at three depths in the bottom 3% of GISP2, most likely because of methanogenic metabolism in the underlying silty ice, followed by turbulent flow of the lowest approximately 90 m of ice. The apparent rates of in situ production of N(2)O and CH(4) spikes by metabolism are observed to be consistent with a single activation energy, U, and maintain proportionality to exp(-U/RT) over the entire temperature range down to -40 degrees C. Fluorescence of nonmicrobial aerosols in GISP2 ice is distinguishable from microbial fluorescence by its different emission spectra. Our spectrofluorimetric scans throughout the GISP2 ice core lead us to conclude that both microbes and nonmicrobial aerosols are deposited in discontinuous bursts, which may provide a tool for studying wind storms in the distant past.
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Wolff E, Spahni R. Methane and nitrous oxide in the ice core record. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2007; 365:1775-92. [PMID: 17513260 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2007.2044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Polar ice cores contain, in trapped air bubbles, an archive of the concentrations of stable atmospheric gases. Of the major non-CO2 greenhouse gases, methane is measured quite routinely, while nitrous oxide is more challenging, with some artefacts occurring in the ice and so far limited interpretation. In the recent past, the ice cores provide the only direct measure of the changes that have occurred during the industrial period; they show that the current concentration of methane in the atmosphere is far outside the range experienced in the last 650,000 years; nitrous oxide is also elevated above its natural levels. There is controversy about whether changes in the pre-industrial Holocene are natural or anthropogenic in origin. Changes in wetland emissions are generally cited as the main cause of the large glacial-interglacial change in methane. However, changing sinks must also be considered, and the impact of possible newly described sources evaluated. Recent isotopic data appear to finally rule out any major impact of clathrate releases on methane at these time-scales. Any explanation must take into account that, at the rapid Dansgaard-Oeschger warmings of the last glacial period, methane rose by around half its glacial-interglacial range in only a few decades. The recent EPICA Dome C (Antarctica) record shows that methane tracked climate over the last 650,000 years, with lower methane concentrations in glacials than interglacials, and lower concentrations in cooler interglacials than in warmer ones. Nitrous oxide also shows Dansgaard-Oeschger and glacial-interglacial periodicity, but the pattern is less clear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Wolff
- British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mao‐Chang Liang
- Research Center for Environmental Changes Academia Sinica Taipei Taiwan
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
| | - Yuk L. Yung
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA
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Yu J, Sun W, Liu J, Wang J, Yang J, Meixner FX. Enhanced net formations of nitrous oxide and methane underneath the frozen soil in Sanjiang wetland, northeastern China. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.1029/2006jd008025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Ishijima K, Sugawara S, Kawamura K, Hashida G, Morimoto S, Murayama S, Aoki S, Nakazawa T. Temporal variations of the atmospheric nitrous oxide concentration and itsδ15N andδ18O for the latter half of the 20th century reconstructed from firn air analyses. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.1029/2006jd007208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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Spahni R, Chappellaz J, Stocker TF, Loulergue L, Hausammann G, Kawamura K, Flückiger J, Schwander J, Raynaud D, Masson-Delmotte V, Jouzel J. Atmospheric methane and nitrous oxide of the Late Pleistocene from Antarctic ice cores. Science 2005; 310:1317-21. [PMID: 16311333 DOI: 10.1126/science.1120132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 357] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core enables us to extend existing records of atmospheric methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) back to 650,000 years before the present. A combined record of CH4 measured along the Dome C and the Vostok ice cores demonstrates, within the resolution of our measurements, that preindustrial concentrations over Antarctica have not exceeded 773 +/- 15 ppbv (parts per billion by volume) during the past 650,000 years. Before 420,000 years ago, when interglacials were cooler, maximum CH4 concentrations were only about 600 ppbv, similar to lower Holocene values. In contrast, the N2O record shows maximum concentrations of 278 +/- 7 ppbv, slightly higher than early Holocene values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renato Spahni
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward J Brook
- Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
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