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High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000-800,000 years before present

Dome C Antarctic CO2 plot, 600 - 800 KYrBP.

Figure 2 (partial).
Dome C CO2, 600 - 800 KYrBP.
Click image for full figure.

High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000-800,000 years before present

Nature
Vol. 453, No. 7193, pp. 379-382, 15 May 2008.
doi: 10.1038/nature06949

Dieter Lüthi1, Martine Le Floch2, Bernhard Bereiter1, Thomas Blunier1,5, Jean-Marc Barnola2, Urs Siegenthaler1, Dominique Raynaud2, Jean Jouzel3, Hubertus Fischer4, Kenji Kawamura1,5, Thomas F. Stocker1
1 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland, and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Erlachstrasse 9a, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2 Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble, 54 Rue Molière, 38402 St Martin d'Hères, France.
3 Institut Pierre Simon Laplace/Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CEA-CNRS-University Versailles-Saint Quentin, CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
4 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Columbusstrasse, D-27568 Bremerhaven, Germany.
5 Present addresses: Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, JulianeMaries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen OE, Denmark (T.B.); National Institute of Polar Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems, 1-9-10 Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan (K.K.).
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 years. Here we present results of the lowest 200m 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 data 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.
Download data from the WDC Paleo archive:
EPICA Dome C Ice Core 800KYr CO2 Data, Text or Excel format.

To read or view the full study, please visit the Nature website.
It was published in Nature, Vol. 453, No. 7193, pp. 379-382, 15 May 2008. doi: 10.1038/nature06949
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