Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Palaeoceanography

Nutrients in the glacial balance

Nature volume 405, pages 288–291 (2000)Cite this article

What are the natural controls on the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere? The question is a compelling one given the rising levels of CO2 from human activities and the prospect of global warming. The past has many lessons for us, and the latest comes from Elderfield and Rickaby on page 305of this issue1. Their analysis hinges on inferences about oceanic nutrient levels during the most recent period of intense glaciation, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), around 22,000 years ago. Nutrient levels can tell us about the level of phytoplankton primary productivity, and so CO2 uptake, in the ocean; this in turn can help account for the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Climate modelling is one approach to tackling the ‘CO2 issue’. But it has its limitations, so attention has also turned to times in the geological past when concentrations of CO2 and climate were very different. Because of the immense reservoir of inorganic carbon dissolved in the ocean (equivalent to over 60 times the amount of atmospheric carbon), explanations for large and geologically rapid changes in atmospheric CO2 centre on the oceanic carbon cycle.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Primary productivity in the Southern Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), as surmised by Elderfield and Rickaby1 and relative to today.

References

  1. Elderfield, H. & Rickaby, R. E. M. Nature 405, 305–310 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Boyle, E. A. & Keigwin, L. D. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. l76, 135–150 (1985/86).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Boyle, E. A. Paleoceanography 3, 471–489 (1988).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rickaby, R. E. M. & Elderfield, H. Paleoceanography 14, 293–303 ( 1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocean Sciences Department and the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, California, USA

    Peggy Delaney

Authors
  1. Peggy Delaney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peggy Delaney.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Delaney, P. Nutrients in the glacial balance. Nature 405, 288–291 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35012731

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35012731

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing