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Geochemistry

When carbon escaped from the sea

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

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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.

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

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

    Katherine A. Allen

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  1. Katherine A. Allen
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Correspondence to Katherine A. Allen.

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

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