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Climate, pCO2 and terrestrial carbon cycle linkages during late Palaeozoic glacial–interglacial cycles

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 824–828 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Earth’s last icehouse, 300 million years ago, is considered the longest-lived and most acute of the past half-billion years, characterized by expansive continental ice sheets1,2 and possibly tropical low-elevation glaciation3. This atypical climate has long been attributed to anomalous radiative forcing promoted by a 3% lower incident solar luminosity4 and sustained low atmospheric pCO2 (≤300 ppm)5. Climate models6, however, indicate a CO2 sensitivity of ice-sheet distribution and sea-level response that questions this long-standing climate paradigm by revealing major discrepancy between hypothesized ice distribution, pCO2, and geologic records of glacioeustasy2,6. Here we present a high-resolution record of atmospheric pCO2 for 16 million years of the late Palaeozoic, developed using soil carbonate-based and fossil leaf-based proxies, that resolves the climate conundrum. Palaeo-fluctuations on the 105-yr scale occur within the CO2 range predicted for anthropogenic change and co-vary with substantial change in sea level and ice volume. We further document coincidence between pCO2 changes and repeated restructuring of Euramerican tropical forests that, in conjunction with modelled vegetation shifts, indicate a more dynamic carbon sequestration history than previously considered7,8 and a major role for terrestrial vegetation–CO2 feedbacks in driving eccentricity-scale climate cycles of the late Palaeozoic icehouse.

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Figure 1: Pennsylvanian pCO2 reconstructed using pedogenic carbonate- and fossil leaf-based proxies.
Figure 2: Consensus pCO2 curves defined by LOESS analysis of combined pedogenic carbonate- and fossil plant-based CO2 estimates.
Figure 3: Comparison of modelled water-use efficiency (WUE) of dominant Carboniferous taxa in relation to prevailing atmospheric pCO2 concentration.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Breecker for discussion and comments on this work, and R. Barclay, J. Antognini, D. Garello, A. Byrd, R. Chen, C. Marquardt and D. Rauh for assistance in the research, D. Horton for access to palaeoclimate model results, and N. Tabor for a subset of stable isotopic analyses. This work was funded by NSF grants EAR-1338281 (I.P.M.), EAR-1338200 (C.J.P.), EAR-1338247 (J.D.W.), and EAR-1338256 (M.T.H.), and ERC-2011-StG and 279962-OXYEVOL to J.C.M.

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Author notes

  1. Isabel P. Montañez and Jennifer C. McElwain: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA

    Isabel P. Montañez & Galen Griggs

  2. Earth Institute, School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Jennifer C. McElwain

  3. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

    Christopher J. Poulsen

  4. Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas 76798, USA

    Joseph D. White

  5. Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 20560, USA

    William A. DiMichele

  6. Department of Biology, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania 19041, USA

    Jonathan P. Wilson

  7. Center for Integrative Geosciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA

    Michael T. Hren

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Contributions

I.P.M. and J.C.M. devised and carried out the CO2 proxy reconstruction and J.D.W., W.A.D., J.P.W. and M.T.H. contributed to the parameterization and sensitivity analyses of the palaeo-CO2 models. C.J.P. undertook the climate modelling analysis, J.D.W. the biogeochemical ecosystem modelling, and G.G. contributed to the CO2 modelling. All authors contributed to the development of ideas, data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Isabel P. Montañez or Jennifer C. McElwain.

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Montañez, I., McElwain, J., Poulsen, C. et al. Climate, pCO2 and terrestrial carbon cycle linkages during late Palaeozoic glacial–interglacial cycles. Nature Geosci 9, 824–828 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2822

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