Climate of The Past Discussions | 2021
Millennial variations of atmospheric CO2 during the early Holocene (11.7–7.4\u2009ka)
Abstract
Abstract. We present a new high-resolution record of atmospheric CO2 from the Siple Dome ice core, Antarctica over the early Holocene (11.7–7.4\u2009ka) that quantifies natural CO2 variability on millennial timescales under interglacial climate conditions. Atmospheric CO2 decreased by ~10\u2009ppm between 11.3 and 7.3\u2009ka. The decrease was punctuated by local minima at 11.1, 10.1, 9.1 and 8.3\u2009ka with amplitude of 2–6\u2009ppm. These variations correlate with proxies for solar forcing and local climate in the South East Atlantic polar front, East Equatorial Pacific and North Atlantic. These relationships suggest that weak solar forcing changes might have impacted CO2 by changing CO2 outgassing from the Southern Ocean and the East Equatorial Pacific and terrestrial carbon storage in the Northern Hemisphere over the early Holocene.\n