Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 31 October 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5646, pp. 859 - 862
DOI: 10.1126/science.1088342
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Carbonate Deposition, Climate Stability, and Neoproterozoic Ice Ages

Andy J. Ridgwell,1* Martin J. Kennedy,1 Ken Caldeira2

The evolutionary success of planktic calcifiers during the Phanerozoic stabilized the climate system by introducing a new mechanism that acts to buffer ocean carbonate-ion concentration: the saturation-dependent preservation of carbonate in sea-floor sediments. Before this, buffering was primarily accomplished by adjustment of shallow-water carbonate deposition to balance oceanic inputs from weathering on land. Neoproterozoic ice ages of near-global extent and multimillion-year duration and the formation of distinctive sedimentary (cap) carbonates can thus be understood in terms of the greater sensitivity of the Precambrian carbon cycle to the loss of shallow-water environments and CO2-climate feedback on ice-sheet growth.

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California–Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
2 Climate and Carbon Cycle ModelingGroup, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, L-103, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andyr{at}citrus.ucr.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Dynamic Marine Calcium Cycle During the Past 28 Million Years.
E. M. Griffith, A. Paytan, K. Caldeira, T. D. Bullen, and E. Thomas (2008)
Science 322, 1671-1674
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mineral evolution.
R. M. Hazen, D. Papineau, W. Bleeker, R. T. Downs, J. M. Ferry, T. J. McCoy, D. A. Sverjensky, and H. Yang (2008)
American Mineralogist 93, 1693-1720
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A snowball Earth versus a slushball Earth: Results from Neoproterozoic climate modeling sensitivity experiments.
A. Micheels and M. Montenari (2008)
Geosphere 4, 401-410
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Another test for snowball Earth.
N. J. Lorentz and F. A. Corsetti (2007)
Geology 35, 383-384
   Full Text »    PDF »
Stratigraphy, Sedimentary Structures, and Textures of the Late Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Cap Carbonate in South China.
G. Jiang, M. J. Kennedy, N. Christie-Blick, H. Wu, and S. Zhang (2006)
Journal of Sedimentary Research 76, 978-995
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A different look at biogeochemistry.
R. A. Berner (2005)
Am J Sci 305, 872-873
   Full Text »    PDF »
Long-lived glaciation in the Late Ordovician? Isotopic and sequence-stratigraphic evidence from western Laurentia.
M. R. Saltzman and S. A. Young (2005)
Geology 33, 109-112
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)