Atmospheric carbon dioxide through the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition

Pearson, Paul Nicholas; Foster, Gavin L.; Wade, Bridget S.

doi:10.1038/nature08447

Cited by 390 publications

(349 citation statements)

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“…In recent years, an abrupt atmospheric CO 2 decline and has been reported for the E/O transition (Pearson et al, 2009). Enriched CO 2 levels in the atmosphere greatly enhance growth and water use efficiency in almost all vegetation types.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This period is marked by the Indo-Asia collision with associated regional mountain uplift and sea retreat probably responsible for monsoon intensification and continental aridification . In addition, it is a period of global climate changes from greenhouse to icehouse conditions in the so-called "doubthouse" times marked by climatic cooling, rapid growth of the Antarctic ice sheet, and a supposed drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels leading to the Eocene Oligocene Transition (EOT) (Eldrett et al, 2009;Pearson et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Hoorn

Straathof

Abels

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

120

111

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General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Climate models suggest that Asian paleoenvironments, monsoons and continental aridification were primarily governed by tectonic uplift and sea retreat since the Eocene with potential contribution of global climate changes. However, the cause and timing of these paleoenvironmental changes remain poorly constrained. The recently well-dated continental mudflat to ephemeral saline lake sedimentary succession, situated in the Xining Basin at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (NW China), provides a unique opportunity to develop additional proxy successions in this area that are placed accurately in time. Here, a palynological record from this succession is reported. High abundances of desert and steppe-desert taxa such as Ephedripites and Nitrariadites/Nitraripollis are found, which can be differentiated by the presence of broad leaved deciduous forest taxa in the lower part of the section (particularly up to 36.4 Ma; magnetochron C16r), and a sudden increase of Pinaceae (Pinuspollenites, Piceaepollenites and Abiespollenites) which is dated at 36.1 Ma (C16n.2n). Coexistence Approach (CoA) indicates that from 39.9 to 36.4 Ma (C17n.1n) regional climate was warm and wet, while from 36.4 to 33.5 Ma (C16n.2n-C13r) climate tends to be cooler and drier. The data indicate that paleoenvironmental and palynological changes on the NE part of the Tibetan Plateau resulted from a combination of long-term tectonic uplift forcing and long-and short-term climate changes. The increase of taxa such as Piceaepollenites and Abiespollenites indicates not only a cooling and drying trend prior to the Eocene/Oligocene (E/O) boundary, but also the existence of high altitude mountain habitats in the periphery of the Xining Basin. The sudden Pinaceae event correlates closely in time with a marked aridification step as viewed from the lithology of the Xining Basin that was linked to the sea retreat out of the Tarim Basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Hoorn

Straathof

Abels

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

120

111

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“…It has been suggested that variations in the concentration of the greenhouse gas CO 2 were responsible for both the overall warmth of the Eocene and the subsequent cooling 17 . Recent studies have documented the importance of CO 2 decline for the final step into the icehouse across the EoceneOligocene transition 12,18 . Despite this, the few available CO 2 reconstructions vary markedly between different proxy systems, obscuring relationships with the global cooling trend 1,5,19,20 and therefore preventing a robust test of this hypothesis (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing atmospheric CO2 concentration was the primary driver of early Cenozoic climate

Anagnostou

John

Edgar

et al. 2016

Nature

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363

377

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The Early Eocene Climate Optimum (EECO, which occurred about 51 to 53 million years ago) 1 , was the warmest interval of the past 65 million years, with mean annual surface air temperature over ten degrees Celsius warmer than during the pre-industrial period 2-4 . Subsequent global cooling in the middle and late Eocene epoch, especially at high latitudes, eventually led to continental ice sheet development in Antarctica in the early Oligocene epoch (about 33.6 million years ago). However, existing estimates place atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels during the Eocene at 500-3,000 parts per million [5][6][7] , and in the absence of tighter constraints carbon-climate interactions over this interval remain uncertain. Here we use recent analytical and methodological developments 8-11 to generate a new high-fidelity record of CO 2 concentrations using the boron isotope (δ 11 Β) composition of well preserved planktonic foraminifera from the Tanzania Drilling Project, revising previous estimates 6 . Although species-level uncertainties make absolute values difficult to constrain, CO 2 concentrations during the EECO were around 1,400 parts per million. The relative decline in DOI: 10.1038/nature17423 Page 2 of 38 CO 2 concentration through the Eocene is more robustly constrained at about fifty per cent, with a further decline into the Oligocene 12 . Provided the latitudinal dependency of sea surface temperature change for a given climate forcing in the Eocene was similar to that of the late Quaternary period 13 , this CO 2 decline was sufficient to drive the well documented high-and low-latitude cooling that occurred through the Eocene 14 . Once the change in global temperature between the pre-industrial period and the Eocene caused by the action of all known slow feedbacks (apart from those associated with the carbon cycle) is removed 2-4 , both the EECO and the late Eocene exhibit an equilibrium climate sensitivity relative to the pre-industrial period of 2.1 to 4.6 degrees Celsius per CO 2 doubling (66 per cent confidence), which is similar to the canonical range (1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius 15 ), indicating that a large fraction of the warmth of the early Eocene greenhouse was driven by increased CO 2 concentrations, and that climate sensitivity was relatively constant throughout this period.Over the past 540 million years, Earth's climate has oscillated between a globally warm 'greenhouse state' and an 'icehouse state' with substantial continental glaciation 16 . The most recent of these transitions occurred between the warmest time interval of the last 65 million years-the EECO (about 14 ± 3 °C warmer than preindustrial times 2 )-and the rapid growth of ice on Antarctica in the earliest icehouse state of the Oligocene (~33.6 Myr ago 1 ). It has been suggested that variations in the concentration of the greenhouse gas CO 2 were responsible for both the overall warmth of the Eocene and the subsequent cooling 17 . Recent studies have documented the importance of CO 2 decline for the final step into the icehous...

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“…Studies suggest that by 34 Ma, pCO 2 reached a critical threshold where favorable orbital parameters and ocean circulation patterns allowed the rapid buildup of Antarctic ice, triggering widespread reduction in atmospheric pCO 2 and decreases in sea surface and deep ocean temperature (4)(5)(6)(7)(8). This event is marked by a +1.5‰ shift in the oxygen isotope ratios of carbonate from deep-sea benthic foraminifera, which reflects both the glaciation of Antarctica and rapid cooling of the surface and deep ocean (1,3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial cooling in Northern Europe during the Eocene–Oligocene transition

Hren

Sheldon

Grimes

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

112

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Geochemical and modeling studies suggest that the transition from the "greenhouse" state of the Late Eocene to the "icehouse" conditions of the Oligocene 34-33.5 Ma was triggered by a reduction of atmospheric pCO 2 that enabled the rapid buildup of a permanent ice sheet on the Antarctic continent. Marine records show that the drop in pCO 2 during this interval was accompanied by a significant decline in high-latitude sea surface and deep ocean temperature and enhanced seasonality in middle and high latitudes. However, terrestrial records of this climate transition show heterogeneous responses to changing pCO 2 and ocean temperatures, with some records showing a significant time lag in the temperature response to declining pCO 2 . We measured the Δ 47 of aragonite shells of the freshwater gastropod Viviparus lentus from the Solent Group, Hampshire Basin, United Kingdom, to reconstruct terrestrial temperature and hydrologic change in the North Atlantic region during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Our data show a decrease in growing-season surface water temperatures (∼10°C) during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, corresponding to an average decrease in mean annual air temperature of ∼4-6°C from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene. The magnitude of cooling is similar to observed decreases in North Atlantic sea surface temperature over this interval and occurs during major glacial expansion. This suggests a close linkage between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, Northern Hemisphere temperature, and expansion of the Antarctic ice sheets.clumped isotopes | paleoclimate T he Eocene-Oligocene transition 34-33.5 Ma represents one of the most dramatic climatic changes of the past 65 My (1-3). Studies suggest that by 34 Ma, pCO 2 reached a critical threshold where favorable orbital parameters and ocean circulation patterns allowed the rapid buildup of Antarctic ice, triggering widespread reduction in atmospheric pCO 2 and decreases in sea surface and deep ocean temperature (4-8). This event is marked by a +1.5‰ shift in the oxygen isotope ratios of carbonate from deep-sea benthic foraminifera, which reflects both the glaciation of Antarctica and rapid cooling of the surface and deep ocean (1, 3).Marine sediments provide high-resolution records of surface and deep ocean temperature responses to the Late Eocene decreases in pCO 2 and Antarctic glaciation (7,8). These show that cooling was amplified in high-latitude regions, with a decrease in sea surface temperature of >5°C from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene (7). Tropical sea surface temperature (SST) and deep ocean records show mixed responses to global cooling across the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT), with some indicating only modest declines in temperature in the tropics (8) and others showing a 3-4°C decrease in SST during the first stage of the cooling event (EOT-1) (9). One recent multiproxy study suggests that cooling during the EOT was specifically linked to increased seasonality, with the majority of cooling occurring during the coolseason months (...

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide through the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition

Cited by 390 publications

References 37 publications

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Changing atmospheric CO2 concentration was the primary driver of early Cenozoic climate

Terrestrial cooling in Northern Europe during the Eocene–Oligocene transition

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