1. Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0220, USA

Correspondence to: T. F. Stocker¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.F.S. (e-mail: Email: stocker@climate.unibe.ch).

Abstract

A high-resolution ice-core record of atmospheric CO₂ concentration over the Holocene epoch shows that the global carbon cycle has not been in steady state during the past 11,000 years. Analysis of the CO₂ concentration and carbon stable-isotope records, using a one-dimensional carbon-cycle model,uggests that changes in terrestrial biomass and sea surface temperature were largely responsible for the observed millennial-scale changes of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations.

1. Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0220, USA

Correspondence to: T. F. Stocker¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.F.S. (e-mail: Email: stocker@climate.unibe.ch).