The contribution of numerical models to our understanding of the Phanerozoic CO2 history

Author(s):  
Yves Godderis ◽  
Yannick Donnadieu

<p>Our understanding of the geological regulation of the carbon cycle has been deeply influenced by the contribution of Bob Berner with his well-known model GEOCARB. Here, we will present a fundamentally different carbon cycle model that explicitly accounts for the effect of the paleogeography using physically based climate simulations and using 22 continental configurations spanning the whole Phanerozoic (GEOCLIM, geoclimmodel.wordpress.com). We will show that several key features of the Phanerozoic climate can be simply explained by the modulation of the carbon cycle by continental drift with the notable exception of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, which is explained by the intense weathering of the Hercynian mountain range. In particular, the continental drift may have strongly impacted the runoff intensity as well as the weathering flux during the transition from the hot Early Cambrian world to the colder Ordovician world. Another fascinating example is the large atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> decrease simulated during the Triassic owing to the northward drift of Pangea exposing large continental area to humid sub-tropics and boosting continental weathering. Conversely, our model fails to reproduce the climatic trend of the last 100 Ma. This is due to the highly dispersed continental configurations of the last 100 Ma that optimize the consumption of CO<sub>2</sub> through continental weathering. This discrepancy may be reduced if we account for a larger influence of the Earth degassing flux on the atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> evolution, which could come from the increase contribution of the pelagic component on the oceanic crust on the global carbonate flux and from the many sub-marine LIPs occurring during the Late Cretaceous.</p><p> </p>

Tellus B ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Brovkin ◽  
Stephan J. Lorenz ◽  
Johann Jungclaus ◽  
Thomas Raddatz ◽  
Claudia Timmreck ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-326
Author(s):  
Nan WU ◽  
Honglin HE ◽  
Li ZHANG ◽  
Xiaoli REN ◽  
Yuanchun ZHOU ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosanna Greenop ◽  
Mathis P. Hain ◽  
Sindia M. Sosdian ◽  
Kevin I. C. Oliver ◽  
Philip Goodwin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The boron isotope composition (δ11B) of foraminiferal calcite reflects the pH and the boron isotope composition of the seawater the foraminifer grew in. For pH reconstructions, the δ11B of seawater must therefore be known, but information on this parameter is limited. Here we reconstruct Neogene seawater δ11B based on the δ11B difference between paired measurements of planktic and benthic foraminifera and an estimate of the coeval water column pH gradient from their δ13C values. Carbon cycle model simulations underscore that the ΔpH–Δδ13C relationship is relatively insensitive to ocean and carbon cycle changes, validating our approach. Our reconstructions suggest that δ11Bsw was  ∼  37.5 ‰ during the early and middle Miocene (roughly 23–12 Ma) and rapidly increased during the late Miocene (between 12 and 5 Ma) towards the modern value of 39.61 ‰. Strikingly, this pattern is similar to the evolution of the seawater isotope composition of Mg, Li and Ca, suggesting a common forcing mechanism. Based on the observed direction of change, we hypothesize that an increase in secondary mineral formation during continental weathering affected the isotope composition of riverine input to the ocean since 14 Ma.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaocheng Liu ◽  
Chenming Zhang ◽  
Yue Liu ◽  
David Lockington ◽  
Ling Li

<p>Estimation of evaporation rates from soils is significant for environmental, hydrological, and agricultural purposes. Modeling of the soil surface resistance is essential to estimate the evaporation rates from bare soil. Empirical surface resistance models may cause large deviations when applied to different soils. A physically-based soil surface model is developed to calculate the surface resistance, which can consider evaporation on the soil surface when soil is fully saturated and the vapor flow below the soil surface after dry layer forming on the top. Furthermore, this physically-based expression of the surface resistance is added into a numerical model that considers the liquid water transport, water vapor transport, and heat transport during evaporation. The simulation results are in good agreement with the results from six soil column drying experiments.  This numerical model can be applied to predict or estimate the evaporation rate of different soil and saturation at different depths during evaporation.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Torres Mendonça ◽  
Julia Pongratz ◽  
Christian Reick

<p>The increase in atmospheric CO2 driven by anthropogenic emissions is the main radiative forcing causing climate change. But this increase is not only a result from emissions, but also from changes in the global carbon cycle. These changes arise from feedbacks between climate and the carbon cycle that drive CO2 into or out of the atmosphere in addition to the emissions, thereby either accelerating or buffering climate change. Therefore, understanding the contribution of these feedbacks to the global response of the carbon cycle is crucial in advancing climate research. Currently, this contribution is quantified by the α-β-γ framework (Friedlingstein et al., 2003). But this quantification is only valid for a particular perturbation scenario and time period. In contrast, a recently proposed generalization (Rubino et al., 2016) of this framework for weak perturbations quantifies this contribution for all scenarios and at different time scales. </p><p>Thereby, this generalization provides a systematic framework to investigate the response of the global carbon cycle in terms of the climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. In the present work we employ this framework to study these feedbacks and the airborne fraction in different CMIP5 models. We demonstrate (1) that this generalization of the α-β-γ framework consistently describes the linear dynamics of the carbon cycle in the MPI-ESM; and (2) how by this framework the climate-carbon cycle feedbacks and airborne fraction are quantified at different time scales in CMIP5 models. Our analysis shows that, independently of the perturbation scenario, (1) the net climate-carbon cycle feedback is negative at all time scales; (2) the airborne fraction generally decreases for increasing time scales; and (3) the land biogeochemical feedback dominates the model spread in the airborne fraction at all time scales. This last result therefore emphasizes the need to improve our understanding of this particular feedback.</p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><p>P. Friedlingstein, J.-L. Dufresne, P. Cox, and P. Rayner. How positive is the feedback between climate change and the carbon cycle? Tellus B, 55(2):692–700, 2003.</p><p>M. Rubino, D. Etheridge, C. Trudinger, C. Allison, P. Rayner, I. Enting, R. Mulvaney, L. Steele, R. Langenfelds, W. Sturges, et al. Low atmospheric CO2 levels during the Little Ice Age due to cooling-induced terrestrial uptake. Nature Geoscience, 9(9):691–694, 2016.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Lade ◽  
Jonathan F. Donges ◽  
Ingo Fetzer ◽  
John M. Anderies ◽  
Christian Beer ◽  
...  

Abstract. Changes to climate–carbon cycle feedbacks may significantly affect the Earth system's response to greenhouse gas emissions. These feedbacks are usually analysed from numerical output of complex and arguably opaque Earth system models. Here, we construct a stylised global climate–carbon cycle model, test its output against comprehensive Earth system models, and investigate the strengths of its climate–carbon cycle feedbacks analytically. The analytical expressions we obtain aid understanding of carbon cycle feedbacks and the operation of the carbon cycle. Specific results include that different feedback formalisms measure fundamentally the same climate–carbon cycle processes; temperature dependence of the solubility pump, biological pump, and CO2 solubility all contribute approximately equally to the ocean climate–carbon feedback; and concentration–carbon feedbacks may be more sensitive to future climate change than climate–carbon feedbacks. Simple models such as that developed here also provide workbenches for simple but mechanistically based explorations of Earth system processes, such as interactions and feedbacks between the planetary boundaries, that are currently too uncertain to be included in comprehensive Earth system models.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 3411-3428 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Daum ◽  
M. H. Denton ◽  
J. A. Wild ◽  
M. G. G. T. Taylor ◽  
J. Šafránková ◽  
...  

Abstract. Among the many challenges facing the space weather modelling community today, is the need for validation and verification methods of the numerical models available describing the complex nonlinear Sun-Earth system. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models represent the latest numerical models of this environment and have the unique ability to span the enormous distances present in the magnetosphere, from several hundred kilometres to several thousand kilometres above the Earth's surface. This makes it especially difficult to develop verification and validation methods which posses the same range spans as the models. In this paper we present a first general large-scale comparison between four years (2001–2004) worth of in situ Cluster plasma observations and the corresponding simulated predictions from the coupled Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme (BATS-R-US) MHD code. The comparison between the in situ measurements and the model predictions reveals that by systematically constraining the MHD model inflow boundary conditions a good correlation between the in situ observations and the modeled data can be found. These results have an implication for modelling studies addressing also smaller scale features of the magnetosphere. The global MHD simulation can therefore be used to place localised satellite and/or ground-based observations into a global context and fill the gaps left by measurements.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 4531-4544 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bala ◽  
K. Caldeira ◽  
A. Mirin ◽  
M. Wickett ◽  
C. Delire

Abstract A coupled climate and carbon (CO2) cycle model is used to investigate the global climate and carbon cycle changes out to the year 2300 that would occur if CO2 emissions from all the currently estimated fossil fuel resources were released to the atmosphere. By the year 2300, the global climate warms by about 8 K and atmospheric CO2 reaches 1423 ppmv. The warming is higher than anticipated because the sensitivity to radiative forcing increases as the simulation progresses. In this simulation, the rate of emissions peaks at over 30 Pg C yr−1 early in the twenty-second century. Even at the year 2300, nearly 50% of cumulative emissions remain in the atmosphere. Both soils and living biomass are net carbon sinks throughout the simulation. Despite having relatively low climate sensitivity and strong carbon uptake by the land biosphere, these model projections suggest severe long-term consequences for global climate if all the fossil fuel carbon is ultimately released into the atmosphere.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Roberto Giustetto ◽  
Stefania Padovan ◽  
Luca Barale ◽  
Roberto Compagnoni

Abstract. The polished stone industry of Chiomonte (Piedmont region, northwestern Italy), dating back to the middle to late Neolithic, has been studied with a multi-analytical approach, including mineralogical, petrographic and morpho-typological issues, with the aim of providing information about the sources of the raw materials and determining the function of this particular settlement in the prehistoric Western Alps. Most of the lithic tools are made of sensu stricto greenstones (i.e. “Na pyroxene rocks” and “Na pyroxene and garnet rocks”), though a large number of serpentinite tools (25 %) also exist. The combined application of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), polarising microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) led to the detection of specific mineral and chemical “markers”, pointing to the Chiomonte tools likely having come from the Monviso area. However, other closer supply sources, e.g. small meta-ophiolite units in the Orsiera–Rocciavré mountain range or in the lower Susa valley, cannot be ruled out. The presence, on the many retrieved roughouts and broken tools, of raw, yet unpolished surfaces that are ascribable to pebbles and cobbles from alluvial or glacial deposits, suggests that these rocks had been picked up from local “secondary” sources. The abundance of roughouts and broken tools identifies Chiomonte as a second-order manufacturing site, although it is still unclear whether such an activity was restricted to serving local needs or if it contributed to the circulation of greenstone implements on a wider scale.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Scholze ◽  
Michael Buchwitz ◽  
Wouter Dorigo ◽  
Luis Guanter ◽  
Shaun Quegan

Abstract. The global carbon cycle is an important component of the Earth system and it interacts with the hydrological, energy and nutrient cycles as well as ecosystem dynamics. A better understanding of the global carbon cycle is required for improved projections of climate change including corresponding changes in water and food resources and for the verification 5 of measures to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. An improved understanding of the carbon cycle can be achieved by model-data fusion or data assimilation systems, which integrate observations relevant to the carbon cycle into coupled carbon, water, energy and nutrient models. Hence, the ingredients for such systems are a carbon cycle model, an algorithm for the assimilation, and systematic and 10 well error-characterized observations relevant to the carbon cycle. Relevant observations for assimilation include various in-situ measurements in the atmosphere (e.g. concentrations of CO2 and other gases) and on land (e.g. fluxes of carbon water and energy, carbon stocks) as well as remote sensing observations (e.g. atmospheric composition, vegetation and surface properties).We briefly review the different existing data assimilation techniques and contrast them to model 15 benchmarking and evaluation efforts (which also rely on observations). A common requirement for all assimilation techniques is a full description of the observational data properties. Uncertainty estimates of the observations are as important as the observations themselves because they similarly determine the outcome of such assimilation systems. Hence, this article reviews the requirements of data assimilation systems on observations and provides a non-exhaustive overview of current 20 observations and their uncertainties for use in terrestrial carbon cycle data assimilation. We report on progress since the review of model-data synthesis in terrestrial carbon observations by Raupach et al. (2005) emphasising the rapid advance in relevant space-based observations.


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