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Science 5 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5501, pp. 112 - 114
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5501.112
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Reports

Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations over the Last Glacial Termination

Eric Monnin,1* Andreas Indermühle,1 André Dällenbach,1 Jacqueline Flückiger,1 Bernhard Stauffer,1 Thomas F. Stocker,1 Dominique Raynaud,2 Jean-Marc Barnola2

A record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, obtained from the Dome Concordia, Antarctica, ice core, reveals that an increase of 76 parts per million by volume occurred over a period of 6000 years in four clearly distinguishable intervals. The close correlation between CO2 concentration and Antarctic temperature indicates that the Southern Ocean played an important role in causing the CO2 increase. However, the similarity of changes in CO2 concentration and variations of atmospheric methane concentration suggests that processes in the tropics and in the Northern Hemisphere, where the main sources for methane are located, also had substantial effects on atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

1 Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2 CNRS Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement, BP 96, 38402 St. Martin d'Hères Cedex, Grenoble, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: monnin{at}climate.unibe.ch

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