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Science 22 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5807, pp. 1894 - 1898
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133822
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Research Articles

The Heartbeat of the Oligocene Climate System

Heiko Pälike,1* Richard D. Norris,2 Jens O. Herrle,1,3 Paul A. Wilson,1 Helen K. Coxall,4 Caroline H. Lear,4 Nicholas J. Shackleton,5{dagger} Aradhna K. Tripati,5 Bridget S. Wade6

A 13-million-year continuous record of Oligocene climate from the equatorial Pacific reveals a pronounced "heartbeat" in the global carbon cycle and periodicity of glaciations. This heartbeat consists of 405,000-, 127,000-, and 96,000-year eccentricity cycles and 1.2-million-year obliquity cycles in periodically recurring glacial and carbon cycle events. That climate system response to intricate orbital variations suggests a fundamental interaction of the carbon cycle, solar forcing, and glacial events. Box modeling shows that the interaction of the carbon cycle and solar forcing modulates deep ocean acidity as well as the production and burial of global biomass. The pronounced 405,000-year eccentricity cycle is amplified by the long residence time of carbon in the oceans.

1 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, School of Ocean and Earth Science, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
2 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, 308 Vaughn Hall, La Jolla, CA 92093–0244, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, 1–26 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada.
4 School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK.
5 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
6 Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901–8521, USA.

{dagger} Deceased (24 January 2006).

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: H.Palike{at}soton.ac.uk

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