Optical microscopic view of a cuticle of the Frenelopsis fossil conifer used to reconstruct the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the Cretaceous. © A. Barral Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity are considered to be an important driver of the current global warming. Accurate understanding of this cause-effect relationship is essential to propose realistic scenarios of the future evolution of Earth’s climate, but the human monitoring history of these variables may be very tenuous to properly take into account the relative importance of their large time-scale dynamics into the climate system. Geological records offer an opportunity to address this time-scale issue as they provide track of the long-term dynamics of atmospheric greenhouse gas contents and surface temperature throughout Earth’s history. A team of researchers of the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon : terre, planètes et environnement ( LGL-TPE ) published the results of their researches in CO2 is considered the main greenhouse gas involved in the current global warming and the primary driver of temperature throughout Earth’s history. However, the soundness of this relationship across time scales and during different climate states of the Earth remains uncertain. Here we explore how CO2 and temperature are related in the framework of a Greenhouse climate state of the Earth. We reconstruct the long-term evolution of atmospheric CO2 concentration (pCO2) throughout the Cretaceous from the carbon isotope compositions of the fossil conifer More information on the Institut national des sciences de l’univers website (CNRS).
Références : CO2 and temperature decoupling at the million-year scale during the Cretaceous Greenhouse. Abel Barral, Bernard Gomez, François Fourel, Véronique Daviero-Gomez & Christophe Lécuyer.
CO2 and temperature decoupling at the million-year scale during the Cretaceous Greenhouse
Advert
