Predictions of future climate change require a clear and nuanced understanding of Earth’s past climate. In a study published today in Science Advances, University of Hawai’i (UH) at Mānoa oceanographers fully reconciled climate and carbon cycle trends of the past 50 million years–solving a controversy debated in the scientific literature for decades.
Throughout Earth’s history, global climate and the global carbon cycle have undergone significant changes, some of which challenge the current understanding of carbon cycle dynamics.
Less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cools Earth and decreases weathering of rocks and minerals on land over long time scales. Less weathering should lead to a shallower calcite compensation depth (CCD), which is the depth in the ocean where the rate of carbonate material raining down equals the rate of carbonate dissolution (also called “snow line”). The depth of the CCD can be traced over the geologic past by inspecting the calcium carbonate content of seafloor sediment cores. [Read more…] about Climate and carbon cycle trends of the past 50 million years reconciled
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