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.

Geochemistry

When carbon escaped from the sea

Nature volume 518, pages 176–177 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

A record of boron isotopes in fossils of microscopic plankton provides fresh evidence that some ocean regions were a source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when Earth warmed at the end of the last ice age. See Letter p.219

During the last ice age, northern continents groaned under the weight of vast ice sheets and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 50% lower than it is today1. Directly after the ice age, during a period known as the glacial termination, CO2 probably escaped from the ocean into the atmosphere, but direct evidence for this carbon transfer has been hard to find. On page 219 of this issue, Martínez-Botí et al.2 identify areas of CO2 degassing from the ocean during the termination. Their records provide clues to the role of the ocean in the dramatic transition from an icy planet to the milder climate of the modern world.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Exchange of carbon dioxide between the ocean and atmosphere.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Monnin, E. et al. Science 291, 112–114 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Martínez-Botí, M. A. et al. Nature 518, 219–222 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Takahashi, T. et al. Deep Sea Res. II 56, 554–577 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Petit, J. R. et al. Nature 399, 429–436 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sanyal, A., Bijma, J., Spero, H. J. & Lea, D. W. Paleoceanography 16, 515–519 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Henehan, M. J. et al. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 364, 111–122 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hönisch, B. & Hemming, N. G. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 236, 305–314 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Palmer, M. R. & Pearson, P. N. Science 300, 480–482 (2003).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Anderson, R. F. et al. Science 323, 1443–1448 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Katherine A. Allen is in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA.,

    Katherine A. Allen

Authors
  1. Katherine A. Allen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine A. Allen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Allen, K. When carbon escaped from the sea. Nature 518, 176–177 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/518176a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/518176a

This article is cited by

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