On the origin and timing of rapid changes in atmospheric methane during the Last Glacial Period
Edward J. Brook
Search for more papers by this authorSusan Harder
Search for more papers by this authorJeff Severinghaus
Search for more papers by this authorEric J. Steig
Search for more papers by this authorCara M. Sucher
Search for more papers by this authorEdward J. Brook
Search for more papers by this authorSusan Harder
Search for more papers by this authorJeff Severinghaus
Search for more papers by this authorEric J. Steig
Search for more papers by this authorCara M. Sucher
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
We present high resolution records of atmospheric methane from the GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) ice core for four rapid climate transitions that occurred during the past 50 ka: the end of the Younger Dryas at 11.8 ka, the beginning of the Bølling-Allerød period at 14.8 ka, the beginning of interstadial 8 at 38.2 ka, and the beginning of interstadial 12 at 45.5 ka. During these events, atmospheric methane concentrations increased by 200–300 ppb over time periods of 100–300 years, significantly more slowly than associated temperature and snow accumulation changes recorded in the ice core record. We suggest that the slower rise in methane concentration may reflect the timescale of terrestrial ecosystem response to rapid climate change. We find no evidence for rapid, massive methane emissions that might be associated with large-scale decomposition of methane hydrates in sediments. With additional results from the Taylor Dome Ice Core (Antarctica) we also reconstruct changes in the interpolar methane gradient (an indicator of the geographical distribution of methane sources) associated with some of the rapid changes in atmospheric methane. The results indicate that the rise in methane at the beginning of the Bølling-Allerød period and the later rise at the end of the Younger Dryas were driven by increases in both tropical and boreal methane sources. During the Younger Dryas (a 1.3 ka cold period during the last deglaciation) the relative contribution from boreal sources was reduced relative to the early and middle Holocene periods.
References
- Allen, J. R. M., et al., Rapid environmental changes in southern Europe during the last glacial period, Nature, 400, 740–743, 1999.
- Alley, R., et al., Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event, Nature, 362, 527–529, 1993.
- Barnola, J. M., P. Pimienta, D. Raynaud, Y. S. Korotkevich, CO2-climate relationship as deduced from the Vostok ice core: A re-examination based on new measurements and on a re-evaluation of the air dating, Tellus, Ser. B, 43B, 83–90, 1991.
- Bender, M., T. Sowers, M. L. Dickson, J. Orchardo, P. Grootes, P. Mayewski, D. Meese, Climate connections between Greenland and Antarctica during the last 100,000 years, Nature, 372, 663–666, 1994.
- Blunier, T., J. A. Chappellaz, J. Schwander, J. M. Barnola, T. Desperts, B. Stauffer, D. Raynaud, Atmospheric methane record from a Greenland ice core over the last 1,000 years, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20, 2219–2222, 1993.
- Blunier, T., J. Chappellaz, J. Schwander, B. Stauffer, D. Raynaud, Variations in atmospheric methane concentration during the Holocene epoch, Nature, 374, 46–49, 1995.
- Broecker, W. S., D. Peteet, I. Hajdas, J. Lin, E. Clark, Antiphasing between rainfall in Africa's rift valley and North America's Great Basin, Quat. Res., 50, 12–20, 1998.
- Brook, E., T. Sowers, J. Orchardo, Rapid variations in atmospheric methane concentration during the past 110,000 years, Science, 273, 1087–1091, 1996a.
- Brook, E. J., J. P. Severinghaus, M. Swanson, P. Grootes, Late glacial methane variations in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores, EOS, Trans. AGU, 7717, Spring Meeting Supplement, S156, 1996b.
- Brook, E. J., J. Severinghaus, S. Harder, M. Bender, Atmospheric methane and millennial-scale climate change, Mechanisms of Global Climate Change at Millennial Timescales, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., 112 P. U. Clark, R. S. Webb, L. Keigwin, 165–176, AGU, Washington D.C., 1999.
10.1029/GM112p0165 Google Scholar
- Bubier, J., T. R. Moore, An ecological perspective on methane emissions from northern wetlands, Trends Ecol. and Evol., 9, 460–465, 1994.
- Campbell, I. D., J. H. McAndrews, Forest disequilibrium caused by rapid Little Ice Age cooling, Nature, 366, 336–338, 1993.
- Chappellaz, J., J. M. Barnola, D. Raynaud, Y. S. Korotkevich, C. Lorius, Atmospheric methane record over the last climatic cycle revealed by the Vostok ice core, Nature, 345, 127–131, 1990.
- Chappellaz, J., T. Blunier, D. Raynaud, J. M. Barnola, J. Schwander, B. Stauffer, Synchronous changes in atmospheric methane and Greenland climate between 40 and 8 kyr BP, Nature, 366, 443–445, 1993a.
- Chappellaz, J. A., I. Y. Fung, A. M. Thompson, The atmospheric methane increase since the last glacial maximum, 1, Source estimates, Tellus, Ser. B, 45B, 228–241, 1993b.
- Chappellaz, J., T. Blunier, S. Kints, B. Stauffer, D. Raynaud, Variations of the Greenland/Antarctic concentration difference in atmospheric methane during the last 11,000 years, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 15987–15997, 1997.
- Crowley, T., Ice-age methane variations, Nature, 353, 122–123, 1991.
- Dällenbach, A., T. Blunier, J. Flückiger, B. Stauffer, J. Chappellaz, D. Raynaud, Changes in the atmospheric CH4 gradient between Greenland and Antarctica during the Last Glacial and transition to the Holocene, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2000.
- Etheridge, D. M., G. I. Pearman, P. J. Fraser, Changes in tropospheric methane between 1841 and 1978 from a high accumulation rate Antarctic ice core, Tellus, Ser. B, 44B, 282–294, 1992.
- Fuchs, A., J. Schwander, B. Stauffer, A new ice mill allows precise concentration determination of methane and most probably also other trace gases in the bubble air of very small ice samples, J. Glaciol., 39, 199–203, 1993.
- Fung, I., J. John, J. Lerner, E. Matthews, M. Prather, L. P. Steele, P. J. Fraser, Three-dimensional model synthesis of the global methane cycle, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 13033–13065, 1991.
- Gasse, F., E. V. Van Campo, A 40,000-yr pollen and diatom record from Late Tritrivakely, Madagascar, in the southern Tropics, Quat. Res., 49, 299–311, 1998.
- Grigg, L. D., C. Whitlock, Late-glacial vegetation and climate change in western Oregon, Quat. Res., 49, 287–298, 1998.
- Grimm, E. C., G. L. Jacobsen, W. A. Watts, B. C. S. Hansen, K. A. Maasch, A 50,000 year record of climatic oscillations from Florida and its temporal correlation with the Heinrich events, Science, 261, 198–200, 1993.
- Grootes, P. M., E. J. Steig, Taylor Dome ice core study 1993/1994: An ice core to bedrock, Antarct. J. U. S., 29, 79–81, 1994.
- Grootes, P. M., M. Stuiver, J. W. C. White, S. Johnsen, J. Jouzel, Comparison of oxygen isotope records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland ice cores, Nature, 366, 552–554, 1993.
- Hein, R., P. J. Crutzen, M. Heinmann, An inverse modeling approach to investigate the global atmospheric methane cycle, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 11, 43–76, 1997.
- Herron, M. M., C. C. Langway, Firn densification: An empirical model, J. Glaciol., 25, 373–385, 1980.
- Hughen, K. A., J. T. Overpeck, L. C. Peterson, S. Trumbore, Rapid climate changes in the tropical Atlantic region during the last deglaciation, Nature, 380, 51–54, 1996.
- Johnsen, S. J., H. B. Clausen, W. Dansgaard, K. Fuhrer, N. Gundestrup, C. U. Hammer, P. Iverson, J. Jouzel, B. Stauffer, J. P. Steffensen, Irregular glacial interstadials recorded in new Greenland ice core, Nature, 359, 311–313, 1993.
- Jouzel, J., et al., Extending the Vostok ice-core record of paleoclimate to the penultimate glacial period, Nature, 364, 407–412, 1993.
- Kennett, J. P., L. L. Hendy, R. J. Behl, Late Quaternary foraminiferal carbon isotope record in Santa Barbara Basin: implications for rapid climate change, EOS, Trans. AGU, 7746, Fall Meeting Supplement, F294, 1996.
- Khalil, M. A. K., R. A. Rassmussen, Atmospheric methane trends over the last 10,000 years, Atmos. Environ., 21, 2445–2452, 1987.
- Lehman, S., L. Keigwin, Sudden changes on North Atlantic circulation during the last deglaciation, Nature, 356, 757–762, 1992.
- Lowe, J., B. Ammann, H. H. Briks, S. Bjorck, G. R. Coope, L. C. Cwynar, J. L. deBeaulieu, R. J. Mort, D. M. Peteet, M. J. C. Walker, Climatic changes in areas adjacent to the North Atlantic during the last glacial-interglacial transition (14–9 ka); A contribution to IGCP-253, J. of Quat. Sci., 9, 185–198, 1994.
- Martinerie, P., D. Raynaud, D. M. Etheridge, J.-M. Barnola, D. Mazaudeir, Physical and climatic parameters which influence the air content of polar ice, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 112, 1–13, 1992.
- Meese, D., R. Alley, T. Gow, P. Grootes, P. Mayewski, M. Ram, K. Taylor, E. Waddington, G. Zielinski, Preliminary depth-age scale of the GISP2 ice coreCRREL Spec. Rep. 94-1Cold Reg. Res. and Eng. Lab., Hanover, N. H., 1994.
- Nakazawa, T., T. Machida, M. Tanaka, Y. Fujii, S. Aoki, O. Watanabe, Differences of the atmospheric CH4 concentration between the Arctic and the Antarctic regions in pre-industrial/pre-agricultural era, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20, 943–946, 1993.
- Nisbet, E. G., Sources of atmospheric methane in early postglacial time, J. Geophys. Res., 9712, 859–12867, 1992.
- Peltier, R., Ice age paleotopography, Science, 265, 195–201, 1994.
- Petit, J. R., et al., Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica, Nature, 399, 429–436, 1999.
- Petit-Maire, N., M. Fontugne, C. Rouland, Atmospheric methane ratio and environmental changes in the Sahara and Sahel during the last 130 kyrs, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., and Palaeocol., 86, 197–204, 1991.
- Prentice, I. C., Vegetation responses to past climatic variation, Vegetatio, 67, 131–141, 1986.
- Prinn, R. G., R. F. Weiss, B. R. Miller, J. Huang, F. N. Alyea, D. M. Cunnold, P. J. Fraser, D. E. Hartley, P. G. Symonds, Atmospheric trends and lifetime of CH3CCl3 and global OH concentrations, Science, 269, 187–192, 1995.
- Rasmussen, R. A., M. A. K. Khalil, Atmospheric methane in the recent and ancient atmospheres: concentrations, trends, and interhemispheric gradient, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 11599–11605, 1984.
- Raynaud, D., J. Chappellaz, J. M. Barnola, Y. S. Korotkevich, C. Lorius, Climatic and methane cycle implications of glacial-interglacial methane change in the Vostok ice core, Nature, 333, 655–657, 1988.
- Ritchie, J. C., L. C. Cwynar, R. W. Spear, Evidence from north-west Canada for an early Holocene Milankovitch thermal maximum, Nature, 305, 326–328, 1983.
- Sachs, J. P., S. J. Lehman, Subtropical North Atlantic temperatures 60,000 to 30,000 years ago, Science, 286, 756–759, 1999.
- Schlesinger, W. H., Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change, 588, Academic, San Diego, Calif., 1996.
- Schwander, J., J.-M. Barnola, C. Andrié, M. Leunberger, A. Ludin, D. Raynaud, B. Stauffer, The age of the air in the firn and the ice at Summit, Greenland, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 2831–2838, 1993.
- Schwander, J., T. Sowers, J.-M. Barnola, T. Blunier, A. Fuchs, B. Malaize, Age scale of the air in the summit ice: implication for glacial-interglacial temperature change, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 19483–19493, 1997.
- Severinghaus, J., E. Brook, Abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial period inferred from trapped air in polar ice, Science, 286, 930–934, 1999.
- Severinghaus, J. P., T. Sowers, E. J. Brook, R. B. Alley, M. L. Bender, Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice, Nature, 391, 141–146, 1998.
- Sowers, T., et al., An interlaboratory comparison of techniques for extracting and analyzing trapped gases in ice cores, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 26527–26538, 1997.
- Stauffer, B., E. Lochbronner, H. Oeschger, J. Schwander, Methane concentration in the glacial atmosphere was only half that of the preindustrial Holocene, Nature, 332, 812–814, 1988.
- Steig, E. J., Beryllium-10 in the Taylor Dome ice core: applications to Antarctic glaciology and paleoclimatology, Ph.D. thesis,Univ. of Wash.,Seattle,1996.
- Steig, E. J., E. J. Brook, J. W. C. White, C. Sucher, S. J. Lehman, M. L. Bender, D. L. Morse, E. D. Waddington, Synchronous climate changes in Antarctica and the North Atlantic during the last glacial-interglacial transition, Science, 282, 92–95, 1998.
- Steig, E. J., D. L. Morse, E. D. Waddington, M. Stuiver, P. M. Grootes, P. A. Mayewski, Wisconsinian and Holocene climate history from an ice core at Taylor Dome, western Ross Embayment, Antarctica, Geogr. Ann., 2000.
- Stuiver, M., P. M. Grootes, T. F. Braziunas, The GISP2 δ18O climate record of the past 16,500 years and the role of the sun, ocean and volcanoes, Quat. Res., 44, 341–354, 1995.
- Sucher, C. M., Atmospheric gases in the Taylor Dome ice core: Implications for East Antarctic climate change, M.S. thesis,Univ. of R.I.,Narragansett,1997.
- Thompson, A., The oxidizing capacity of the Earth's atmosphere: Probable past and future changes, Science, 256, 1157–1165, 1992.
- Thorpe, R. B., K. S. Law, S. Bekki, J. A. Pyle, E. G. Nisbet, Is methane-driven deglaciation consistent with the ice core record?, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 28627–28635, 1996.
- Trudinger, C. M., I. G. Enting, D. M, Etheridge, R.J. Francey, V.A. Levchenko, and L.P. Steele, Modeling air movement and bubble trapping in firn, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 6747–6763, 1997.
- Webb, T., Is vegetation in equilibrium with climate? How to interpret late Quaternary pollen data, Vegetatio, 67, 75–91, 1986.
- Whiting, G. J., J. P. Chanton, Primary production control of methane emission from wetlands, Nature, 364, 794–795, 1993.