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Science 18 June 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5422, pp. 1971 - 1973
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5422.1971
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Reports

Century-Scale Shifts in Early Holocene Atmospheric CO2 Concentration

Friederike Wagner, 1 Sjoerd J. P. Bohncke, 2 David L. Dilcher, 3 Wolfram M. Kürschner, 1 Bas van Geel, 4 Henk Visscher 1

The inverse relation between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and stomatal frequency in tree leaves provides an accurate method for detecting and quantifying century-scale carbon dioxide fluctuations. Stomatal frequency signatures of fossil birch leaves reflect an abrupt carbon dioxide increase at the beginning of the Holocene. A succeeding carbon dioxide decline matches the Preboreal Oscillation, a 150-year cooling pulse that occurred about 300 years after the onset of the Holocene. In contrast to conventional ice core estimates of 270 to 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv), the stomatal frequency signal suggests that early Holocene carbon dioxide concentrations were well above 300 ppmv.

1 Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
2 Netherlands Centre for Geo-ecological Research, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Free University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands.
3 Paleobotany Laboratory, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
4 Netherlands Centre for Geo-ecological Research, Department of Palynology and Paleo/Actuo-ecology, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Stomatal frequency adjustment of four conifer species to historical changes in atmospheric CO2.
L. L. R. Kouwenberg, J. C. McElwain, W. M. Kurschner, F. Wagner, D. J. Beerling, F. E. Mayle, and H. Visscher (2003)
Am. J. Botany 90, 610-619
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Rapid atmospheric CO2 changes associated with the 8,200-years-B.P. cooling event.
F. Wagner, B. Aaby, and H. Visscher (2002)
PNAS 99, 12011-12014
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Century-scale changes of atmospheric CO2 during the last interglacial.
M. Rundgren and O. Bennike (2002)
Geology 30, 187-189
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Early Holocene Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations.
A. Indermühle, B. Stauffer, T. F. Stocker, D. Raynaud, J. Barnola;, H. H. W. E. H. Birks;, F. Wagner, W. M. Kürschner, H. Visscher, S. J. Bohncke, et al. (1999)
Science 286, 1815a-1815
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