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Ice Core Records as a Key to Understanding the History of Atmospheric Trace Gases

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Book cover Biogeochemistry of Global Change

Abstract

Ice cores have been revealed as a powerful indicator of global environmental conditions of the preindustrial time and the glacial-interglacial cycle (the last 150,000 years). Of special interest is the most direct evidence of past changes in radiatively active trace gases found in the ice record. We present here a review of the results concerning three of the main radiatively active gases: CO2, CH4, and N2O.

The record indicates that the three gases had significantly lower concentrations during the preindustrial time and that we cannot disregard possible global fluctuations of the preindustrial background over the last millennium. The large increase (by up to a factor of 2 in the case of CH4) between preindustrial time and today is largely attributed to anthropogenic activities.

The glacial-interglacial cycle has been documented for CO2 and CH4. Their variations are generally well-correlated with global climatic changes showing strongly depleted concentrations (by up to about a factor of 2 in the case of CH4) during the full glacial conditions relative to interglacial periods. The gas records obtained from ice cores can be interpreted, at least qualitatively, in terms of flux changes between ocean, continental biosphere, and atmosphere, and, in the case of CH4, of changes in tropospheric destruction rate. These changes are assumed to be induced by direct or indirect climatic forcings. In turn, the changes in CO2 and CH4 are participating on the paleoclimatic variability and information can be obtained from the record on the climate sensitivity of greenhouse gases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’ Environnement, B.P. 96, 38402, St. Martin d’Hères Cedex, France

    D. Raynaud

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  1. ISEB, Menlo Park, California, USA

    Ronald S. Oremland (Chairman) (Chairman)

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Raynaud, D. (1993). Ice Core Records as a Key to Understanding the History of Atmospheric Trace Gases. In: Oremland, R.S. (eds) Biogeochemistry of Global Change. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2812-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2812-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6215-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2812-8

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