a high resolution14c dated sediment sequence from southwest sweden age comparisons between different components of the sediment a macrofossil rich glaciomarine marine lacustrine sediment from a soft water lake in southwestern sweden has provided an opportunity to 14c date different components of its sediments bulk sediment dates are 100 to 500 yr older than fragile terrestrial macrofossils of corresponding levels with a mean age difference of ca 300 yr this is explained by the presence of old and reworked organic material in the sediment five age comparisons between terrestrial macrofossils and periostraca of marine bivalves probably arctica islandica of allerod age give a mean age difference of 380 yr i e slightly greater than the present reservoir age of 340 30 yr for the swedish west coast this difference is roughly the same as for the marine macroalga desmarestia aculeata a date from shell carbonate fragments of mytilus edulis yields an age that is more than 1000 yr older than corresponding periostraca and terrestrial macrofossils and 500 1000 yr older than the age of the supposed deglaciation of the site altogether this indicates a larger marine reservoir effect during the allerod than at present 1998 john wiley sons ltd

timing of the antarctic cold reversal and the atmospheric co2increase with respect to the younger dryas event the transition from the last glacial to the holocene is a key period for understanding the mechanisms of global climate change ice cores from the large polar ice sheets provide a wealth of information with good time resolution for this period however interactions between the two hemispheres can only be investigated if ice core records from greenland and antarctica can be synchronised accurately and reliably the atmospheric methane concentration shows large and very fast changes during this period these variations are well suited for a synchronisation of the age scales of ice cores from greenland and antarctica here we confirm the proposed lead of the antarctic cold reversal on the younger dryas cold event the antarctic cooling precedes the younger dryas by at least 1 8 kyr this suggests that northern and southern hemispheres were in anti phase during the younger dryas cold event a further result of the synchronisation is that the long term glacial interglacial increase of atmospheric co 2 was not interrupted during the younger dryas event and that atmospheric co 2 changes are not necessarily dominated by changes in the north atlantic circulation

ash layers from iceland in the greenland grip ice core correlated with oceanic and land sediments four previously known ash layers ash zones i and ii saksunarvatn and the settlement layer all originating in iceland have been identified in the central greenland ice core grip this correlation of the ash between the different environments is achieved by comparison of the chemical composition of glass shards from the ash this establishes and confirms detailed correlations between the different types of depositional records and the absolute dating of the younger part of the ice core by counting annual layers dates the eruptions accurately a precise connection with dates obtained by14c beyond the range of dendrochronology is established which provides an excellent confirmation of230th 234u dates from corals four additional icelandic ash layers have also been identified in the core but not yet correlated with known ash deposits

impact of oceanic reorganizations on the ocean carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide content a zonally averaged circulation biogeochemical ocean model is used to explore how the distribution of po4 and 13c in the major basins and the atmospheric pco2 respond to rapid changes in the thermohaline circulation thc different evolutions of the atlantic thc are simulated by applying surface freshwater pulses typical for example of heinrich events and the last deglaciation in the model when the thc completely collapses po4 increases 0 5 mmol m 3 and 13c decreases 1 because of a longer residence time of waters at the surface these surface anomalies are propagated to the bottom north atlantic when the thc resumes when the thermohaline overturning is only partly reduced and at shallower depths changes in bottom waters are accompanied by a po4 decrease and 13c increase at intermediate levels in the mid latitude atlantic this results in enhanced vertical gradients of these properties consistent with chemical and isotopic reconstructions for the last glacial maximum finally the atmospheric pco2 increases during the cold period in the north atlantic when the thc is reduced with an amplitude 7 30 atm and timescale 10 to 1 2 10 yr depending on the intensity of the thc change this is qualitatively consistent with recent data from an antarctic ice core documenting a pco2 increase during the younger dryas and after heinrich events 4 and 5

the flickering switch of late pleistocene climate change polar ice contains a unique record of past climate variations previous greenland ice cores have documented relatively warm interstadial periods during the last glaciation and short centuryscale returns to colder conditions during the glacial to interglacial warming see for example ref 1 these climate features have also been observed to varying degrees in ocean sediment cores2 4 and terrestrial pollen and insect records5 7 here we report electrical conductivity measurements from a new greenland ice core which confirm these previous observations and also reveal a hitherto unrecognized mode of rapid climate variation fluctuations in ice conductivity on the scales of 5 20 years reflect rapid oscillations in the dust content of the atmosphere this flickering between two preferred states would seem to require extremely rapid reorganizations in atmospheric circulation

glacial interglacial co2 change the iron hypothesis several explanations for the 200 to 280 ppm glacial interglacial change in atmospheric co2 concentrations deal with variations in southern ocean phytoplankton productivity and the related use or nonuse of major plant nutrients an hypothesis is presented herein in which arguments are made that new productivity in today s southern ocean 7 4 1013g yr 1 is limited by iron deficiency and hence the phytoplankton are unable to take advantage of the excess surface nitrate phosphate that if used could result in total southern ocean new production of 2 3 1015 g c yr 1 as a consequence of fe limited new productivity holocene interglacial co2 levels preindustrial are as high as they were during the last interglacial 280 ppm in contrast atmospheric dust fe supplies were 50 times higher during the last glacial maximum lgm because of this fe enrichment phytoplankton growth may have been greatly enhanced larger amounts of upwelled nutrients may have been used and the resulting stimulation of new productivity may have contributed to the lgm drawdown of atmospheric co2 to levels of less than 200 ppm background information and arguments in support of this hypothesis are presented

evidence for the occurrence of vedde ash in sweden radiocarbon and calendar age estimates a tephra layer of rhyolitic composition has been recorded in sediments from lake madtjarn southwestern sweden geochemical analyses have shown that the tephra is identical to the rhyolitic component of the middle younger dryas vedde ash a series of ams radiocarbon measurements places the radiocarbon age of the tephra within a 14c plateau at 10 400 10 300 14c y bp based on a linear younger dryas sedimentation rate and assumptions about the apparent synchroneity of changes in lake sediments tree rings and ice core records the calendar year age of the tephra concentrations is estimated at 12 045 11 975 yr bp which accords well with the age of the equivalent tephra in the grip core 1998 john wiley sons ltd

on the propagation and decay of north brazil current rings near the western boundary of the tropical north atlantic where the north brazil current nbc retroflects into the north equatorial countercurrent large anticyclonic rings are shed after separating from the retroflection region the so called nbc rings travel northwestward along the brazilian coast until they reach the island chain of the lesser antilles and disintegrate these rings contribute substantially to the upper limb return flow of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation by carrying south atlantic water into the northern subtropical gyre their relevance for the northward transport of south atlantic water depends on the frequency of their generation as well as on their horizontal and vertical structure the ring shedding and propagation and the complex interaction of the rings with the lesser antilles are investigated in the inline equation family of linked atlantic model experiments flame model the ring properties simulated in flame reach the upper limit of the observed rings in diameter and agree with recent observations on seasonal variability which indicates a maximum shedding during the first half of the year when the rings reach the shallow topography of the lesser antilles they are trapped by the island triangle of st lucia barbados and tobago and interact with the island chain the model provides a resolution that is capable of resolving the complex topographic conditions at the islands and illuminates various possible fates for the water contained in the rings it also reproduces laboratory experiments that indicate that both cyclones and anticyclones are formed after a ring passes through a topographic gap trajectories of artificial floats which were inserted into the modeled velocity field are used to investigate the pathways of the ring cores and their fate after they encounter the lesser antilles the majority of the floats entered the caribbean while the northward atlantic pathway was found to be of minor importance no prominent pathway was found east of barbados where a ring could avoid the interaction with the islands and migrate toward the northern lesser antilles undisturbed

stomatal evidence for a decline in atmospheric co2 concentration during the younger dryas stadial a comparison with antarctic ice core records a recent high resolution record of late glacial co2 change from dome concordia in antarctica reveals a trend of increasing co2 across the younger dryas stadial gs 1 these results are in good agreement with previous antarctic ice core records however they contrast markedly with a proxy co2 record based on the stomatal approach to co2 reconstruction which records a ca 70 ppm mean co2 decline at the onset of gs 1 to address these apparent discrepancies we tested the validity of the stomatal based co2 reconstructions from kru akenes by obtaining further proxy co2 records based on a similar approach using fossil leaves from two independent lakes in atlantic canada our late glacial co2 reconstructions reveal an abrupt ca 77 ppm decrease in atmospheric co2 at the onset of the younger dryas stadial which lagged climatic cooling by ca 130 yr furthermore the trends recorded in the most accurate high resolution ice core record of co2 from dome concordia can be reproduced from our stomatal based co2 records when time averaged by the mean age distribution of air contained within dome concordia ice 200 to 550 yr if correct our results indicate an abrupt drawdown of atmospheric co2 within two centuries at the onset of gs 1 suggesting that some re evaluation of the behaviour of atmospheric co2 sinks and sources during times of rapid climatic change such as the late glacial may be required copyright 2002 john wiley sons ltd journal of quaternary science

routing of meltwater from the laurentide ice sheet during the younger dryas cold episode rooth1 proposed that the younger dryas cold episode which chilled the north atlantic region from 11 000 to 10 000 yr bp was initiated by a diversion of meltwater from the mississippi drainage to the st lawrence drainage system the link between these events is postulated to be a turnoff during the younger dryas cold episode of the north atlantic s conveyor belt circulation system which currently supplies an enormous amount of heat to the atmosphere over the north atlantic region2 this turnoff is attributed to a reduction in surface water salinity and hence also in density of the waters in the region where north atlantic deep water nadw now forms here we present oxygen isotope and accelerator radiocarbon measurements on planktonic foraminifera from orca basin core en32 pc4 which reveal a significant reduction in meltwater flow through the mississippi river to the gulf of mexico from about 11 200 to 10 000 radiocarbon years ago this finding is consistent with the record for lake agassiz which indicates that the meltwater from the southwestern margin of the laurentide ice sheet was diverted to the northern atlantic ocean through the st lawrence valley during the interval from 11 000 to 10 000 years before present yr bp

simulation of abrupt climate change induced by freshwater input to the north atlantic ocean temperature records from greenland ice cores1 2 suggest that large and abrupt changes of north atlantic climate occurred frequently during both glacial and postglacial periods one example is the younger dryas cold event broecker3 speculated that these changes result from rapid changes in the thermohaline circulation of the atlantic ocean which were caused by the release of large amounts of melt water from continental ice sheets here we describe an attempt to explore this intriguing phenomenon using a coupled ocean atmosphere model in response to a massive surface flux of fresh water to the northern north atlantic of the model the thermohaline circulation weakens abruptly intensifies and weakens again followed by a gradual recovery generating episodes that resemble the abrupt changes of the ocean atmosphere system recorded in ice and deep sea cores4 the associated change of surface air temperature is particularly large in the northern north atlantic ocean and its neighbourhood but is relatively small in the rest of the world

late glacial and early holocene variations in atmospheric co2 concentration indicated by high resolution stomatal index data data from ice cores suggest that late glacial and early holocene atmospheric co2 variations were rather conservative the most important change being a gradual younger dryas increase by contrast palaeo co2 records based on the inverse relationship between co2 partial pressure and stomatal frequency of terrestrial plant leaves reflect a more dynamic co2 evolution including an abrupt decrease at the allerod younger dryas transition here we present a late glacial and early holocene co2 record based on stomatal index data from leaves preserved in the sediments of a small lake in southwestern sweden three independent records constructed from stomatal index data of salix polaris salix herbacea and betula nana leaves were combined to form a high resolution co2 reconstruction for the period 12 800 10 800 cal yr bp atmospheric co2 concentrations were found to have decreased rapidly from c 260 ppmv to 210 215 ppmv within 200 years during the allerod gi 1 younger dryas gs 1 transition after 100 200 years co2 concentration started to gradually increase to 270 290 ppmv at the end of the younger dryas stadial gs 1 co2 concentrations were relatively stable during the early holocene except for a short lived period of lower 240 250 ppmv values c 11350 11200 cal yr bp this late glacial and early holocene co2 evolution partly resembles previous stomatal based co2 reconstructions and the overall trend is almost identical to that seen in ice core records the amplitude of change is however markedly higher in the swedish stomatal based record compared to the ice cores this difference may partly be accounted for by the inherent smoothing of ice core co2 records caused by diffusion but a major part of the difference in amplitude between ice core and stomatal based records still remains to be explained based on our reconstruction atmospheric co2 may have played an important role in climate dynamics during the last deglaciation c 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved less

century scale changes of atmospheric co2 during the last interglacial the crucial role of atmospheric co2 in glacial interglacial transitions is demonstrated by recent ice core studies that highlight the importance of accurate co2 records for our understanding of quaternary climate dynamics previous estimates of co2 levels during the last interglacial stage the eemian relied on measurements on air trapped in the antarctic vostok ice core due to uncertainties associated with in situ chemical alteration and gas diffusion there is a need for independent estimates of past co2 levels here we report 33 eemian co2 estimates based on the stomatal index of salix herbacea l leaves preserved in greenland sediments we reconstruct eemian co2 levels centered on 250 280 parts per million by volume ppmv in general agreement with ice core data two deviating lower stomatal estimates may reflect diffusional smoothing of vostok co2 data and indicate century scale eemian co2 variability less

the preboreal oscillation around the nordic seas terrestrial and lacustrine responses the occurrence of an early preboreal climatic cooling oscillation pbo in lacustrine and glacial records from northwest europe iceland and greenland is reviewed and documented the often subtle response of the proxy records to this oscillation in combination with its short duration make it difficult to detect owing to its chronostratigraphic position between the 10 000 9900 and 9600 9500 14 c plateaux c 11 300 11 150 calendar yr bp it is also difficult to 14 c date with precision we find that the vegetation response to the pbo varies between sites and regions in contrast to the pioneer vegetation in iceland and southern sweden the expanding birch pine forest in germany denmark was more susceptible to deteriorating growing conditions the combined lacustrine tree ring and glacial records imply that the pbo was characterised by cool and humid conditions throughout northwestern and central europe this is documented by vegetation changes decreased aquatic production increased soil erosion increased 2 h and 13 c content in tree rings readvances or stillstands of the ice sheet in norway and finland and ingression of brackish water into the baltic icelandic proxy records from lake sediments and glacial moraines imply cooler conditions than during the previous preboreal period but not as extreme as during the younger dryas greenland records suggest that the early preboreal was characterised by ice readvances as an effect of cool climate and increased precipitation in relation to the younger dryas it was not until the end of the pbo that climate was warm enough to melt the land based ice sheet this preboreal oscillation found on both sides of the nordic seas is interpreted as an effect of increased freshwater forcing on the thermohaline circulation in the nordic seas which is implied by a simultaneous and distinct rise in the atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio a slow down of the thermohaline circulation may tempor arily have pushed the polar front further south 1997 by john wiley sons ltd preboreal oscillation thermohaline circulation lacustrine records glacial records chronology

natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric co2 over the last 1000 years from air in antarctic ice and firn a record of atmospheric co2 mixing ratios from 1006 a d to 1978 a d has been produced by analysing the air enclosed in three ice cores from law dome antarctica the enclosed air has unparalleled age resolution and extends into recent decades because of the high rate of snow accumulation at the ice core sites the co2 data overlap with the record from direct atmospheric measurements for up to 20 years the effects of diffusion in the firn on the co2 mixing ratio and age of the ice core air were determined by analyzing air sampled from the surface down to the bubble close off depth the uncertainty of the ice core co2 mixing ratios is 1 2 ppm 1 preindustrial co2 mixing ratios were in the range 275 284 ppm with the lower levels during 1550 1800 a d probably as a result of colder global climate natural co2 variations of this magnitude make it inappropriate to refer to a single preindustrial co2 level major co2 growth occurred over the industrial period except during 1935 1945 a d when co2 mixing ratios stabilized or decreased slightly probably as a result of natural variations of the carbon cycle on a decadal timescale

synchronous climate changes in antarctica and the north atlantic central greenland ice cores provide evidence of abrupt changes in climate over the past 100 000 years many of these changes have also been identified in sedimentary and geochemical signatures in deep sea sediment cores from the north atlantic confirming the link between millennial scale climate variability and ocean thermohaline circulation it is shown here that two of the most prominent north atlantic events the rapid warming that marks the end of the last glacial period and the bolling allerod younger dryas oscillation are also recorded in an ice core from taylor dome in the western ross sea sector of antarctica this result contrasts with evidence from ice cores in other regions of antarctica which show an asynchronous response between the northern and southern hemispheres

a holocene co2 record from the stomatal index of subfossil salix herbacea l leaves from northern sweden a stomatal based method of palaeo co2 estimation has been applied to a temporally detailed sequence of leaves from a high latitude lake 68 n in northern sweden spanning the last 9000 years the resulting atmospheric co2 reconstruction documents the onset of a gradual increase c 5000 years before present indicating that the carbon cycle has not been in steady state over this time stable carbon isotope 13c measurements of the subfossil leaves constrain the interpretation of the inferred changes in the operation of the global carbon cycle the 13c data reveal no marked or systematic shifts towards more negative values indicating that the co2 addition to the atmosphere 5000 1000 yr bp may have been predominantly of oceanic origin

co 2 record in the byrd ice core 50 000 5 000 years bp the analysis of air in polar ice cores revealed 30 lower co2 values during glacial periods than during interglacial periods at present this is confirmed by results from six different ice cores two from greenland and four from antarctica1 5 in all cores the co2 change coincides with the change in the isotopic composition of the ice expressed as either the 18o or d ratio both are indicators for the mean annual surface temperature6 to investigate the relationship between atmospheric co2 concentration changes with changes in climate the atmospheric co2 concentration during and at the end of the last glaciation has to be known in detail to achieve this we have studied a great number of samples from the deep ice core from byrd station westantarctica drilled in 1968 these measurements allow us to reconstruct the atmospheric co02 concentration in the time period 50 000 15 000 yr bp in great detail

rapid late glacial atmospheric co2 changes reconstructed from the stomatal density record of fossil leaves the younger dryas stadial 11 000 10 000 yr bp was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation we have reconstructed atmospheric co2 concentrations from a high resolution sequence of fossil salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation from krakenes western norway using the relationship between leaf stomatal density and atmospheric co2 concentration high allerod co2 values median 273 ppmv decreased rapidly during 130 200 14c years of the late allerod to ca 210 ppmv at the start of the younger dryas they then increased steadily through the younger dryas reaching typical interglacial values once more ca 275 ppmv in the holocene the rapid late allerod decrease in co2 concentration preceded the younger dryas temperature drop possibly by several decades this striking pattern of changes has not so far been recorded unambiguously in temporally coarse measurements of atmospheric co2 from ice cores our observed late glacial co2 changes have implications for global modelling of the ocean atmosphere biosphere over the last glacial interglacial transition

modelling the concentration of atmospheric co2 during the younger dryas climate event the younger dryas yd dated between 12 7 11 6 ky bp in the grip ice core central greenland is a distinct cold period in the north atlantic region during the last deglaciation a popular but controversial hypothesis to explain the cooling is a reduction of the atlantic thermohaline circulation thc and associated northward heat flux as triggered by glacial meltwater recently a ch4 based synchronization of grip 18o and byrd co2 records west antarctica indicated that the concentration of atmospheric co2 coatm2 rose steadily during the yd suggesting a minor influence of the thc on coatm2 at that time here we show that the coatm2 change in a zonally averaged circulation biogeochemistry ocean model when thc is collapsed by freshwater flux anomaly is consistent with the byrd record cooling in the north atlantic has a small effect on coatm2 in this model because it is spatially limited and compensated by far field changes such as a warming in the southern ocean the modelled southern ocean warming is in agreement with the anti phase evolution of isotopic temperature records from grip northern hemisphere and from byrd and vostok east antarctica during the yd 13c depletion and po4 enrichment are predicted at depth in the north atlantic but not in the southern ocean this could explain a part of the controversy about the intensity of the thc during the yd potential weaknesses in our interpretation of the byrd co2 record in terms of thc changes are discussed

tectonic features of the lipari vulcano complex aeolian archipelago italy from 10 years 1996 2006 of gps data this research has benefited from funding provided by the italian presidenza del consiglio dei ministri dipartimento della protezione civile dpc

an event stratigraphy for the last termination in the north atlantic region based on the greenland ice core record a proposal by the intimate group it is suggested that the grip greenland ice core should constitute the stratotype for the last termination based on the oxygen isotope signal in that core a new event stratigraphy spanning the time interval from ca 22 0 to 11 5 k grip yr bp ca 19 0 10 0 k 14 c yr bp is proposed for the north atlantic region this covers the period from the last glacial maximum through termination 1 of the deep ocean record to the pleistocene holocene boundary and encompasses the last glacial late glacial of the traditional northwest european stratigraphy the isotopic record for this period is divided into two stadial episodes greenland stadials 1 gs 1 and 2 gs 2 and two interstadial events greenland interstadials 1 gi 1 and 2 gi 2 in addition gi 1 and gs 2 are further subdivided into shorter episodes the event stratigraphy is equally applicable to ice core marine and terrestrial records and is considered to be a more appropriate classificatory scheme than the terrestrially based radiocarbon dated chronostratigraphy that has been used hitherto 1998 john wiley sons ltd

reconstructing past atmospheric co2 concentration based on ice core analyses open questions due to in situ production of co2 in the ice analysis of air extracted from bubbles of polar ice showed the anthropogenic increase of atmospheric co2 concentration during the past few hundred years preindustrial concentration 280 ppmv and unexpectedly that the concentration also increased due to natural causes from 200 to 280 ppmv during the transition from the last glacial epoch to the holocene however more detailed reconstructions based on ice core analyses suggested that some of the additional observed variations were actually due to the modification of co2 concentration in the bubbles by chemical reactions between impurities in the ice detailed analyses of acidity the carbonate concentration the concentration of oxidation agents like hydrogen peroxide h2o2 and organic compounds e g formaldehyde hcho along short intervals of ice cores representing only a few annual layers allowed us to investigate these chemical reactions the records are not conclusive but they indicate that the oxidation of organic compounds is at least as important as acid carbonate reactions ice containing a low mean carbonate and a low h2o2 concentration as well as a small scattering of co2 results obtained on several adjacent samples representing a few annual layers at most is at present the best guarantee for reliable results of the atmospheric co2 concentration

early holocene atmospheric co2 concentrations wagner et al 1 1 present a high resolution record of leaf stomatal index si from which they reconstruct the concentration of atmospheric co2 in the early holocene 10 070 to 9 38014c yr bp 11 300 to 10 600 cal yr bp 1 1 2 2 the resulting record shows a co2 concentration of