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carbonate platforms in low latitudes, which gave origin to the abundant Cretaceous limestone
in the geological record. The carbonate record of these negative feedbacks also includes the
chalk formed by the deposition of skeletons of planktonic organisms. Moreover, another
geological record of these environmental changes was the organic carbon burial as coal (in
continents, especially from the forests of the warm and wet high latitude areas) and kerogen (in
the oceans).
The silicate-carbonate cycle
In the short-term, the oceans absorb part of the increase in atmospheric CO2 (IPCC,
2013, p. 11). The phytoplankton uses this CO2 in their skeletons, and after death, their remains
precipitate and accumulate as chalk (SKELTON, 2006, p. 11). In the mid-term, as global
temperature increased in the Cretaceous, the ocean floor also became warmer (SKELTON, 2006,
p. 177), enabling chalk deposition in broader extensions without being re-dissolved during
precipitation.
The sea-level rise in the Cretaceous formed extensive shallow seas in low latitudes, while
higher evaporation released more CO2 in these saturated seas, allowing the development of
highly productive carbonate platform (SKELTON, 2006, p. 263). However, the chemical process
in carbonate platforms also releases part of the CO2 back into the atmosphere, as a mid-term
positive feedback in greenhouse conditions (SKELTON, 2006, p. 265).
In the long term, the carbonate from platforms and chalk acted as sinks to reduce
atmospheric CO2 (SKELTON, 2006, p. 270). However, any analogy with current age should be
cautions, because there are less shallow seas, and species of phytoplankton and carbonate
platforms are different from before.
The organic-carbon cycle
The Cretaceous world had warmer and wetter climate in high latitudes than today,
enabling better plant growth (SKELTON, 2006, p. 249). As a short-term effect, the thicker
vegetation decreased albedo, creating a positive feedback that increased temperatures even
more (SKELTON, 2006, p. 280). Plant growth takes CO2 from atmosphere through
photosynthesis, but the CO2 may come back through organic matter decomposition in the short
term. However, the period of relatively lower temperature in polar winter curtailed
decomposition (SKELTON, 2006, p. 161). In the mid-term, plant growth also accelerated
weathering and consequent sedimentation rates (SKELTON, 2006, p. 194), which was important
to cover the organic matter and store it as coal. In the long-term, coal storage in high latitudes
became a relevant carbon sink to gradually reduce atmospheric CO2 (SKELTON, 2006, p. 270).
As illustrated in the diagram of Figure 1, the increase in temperature and precipitation
due to the increase in atmospheric CO2 stimulates plant growth that, through photosynthesis,
sequester carbon from atmosphere and use it to store glucose and plant tissues. Depending on
the local environmental conditions, such as areas with high sediment deposition rates and
reduced organic decomposition (such as swamps and mires), a high share of this stored organic
carbon is buried and transformed into coal, removing the CO2 from the short-term carbon
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atmospheric carbon cycle into the long term sink. Therefore, in the long-term, this carbon sink
of terrestrial organic carbon helped to partially mitigate greenhouse warming during the
Cretaceous, and, afterwards, especially towards the end of Cretaceous, to gradually return to
relatively lower CO2 levels.
Atmospher
ic CO2
Organic
Carbon
Burial
Climate
(temperatu
re and
precipitatio
Plant
photosynthe
sis and
The release of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere, with its subsequent increase in
global warming, would cause significant impacts on polar regions. The first change, caused by
temperature warming, would be melting the glaciers and permafrost soils. These changes,
together with a higher concentration of atmospheric CO2, would allow higher rates of vegetation
growth in these areas. This vegetation would have a low albedo, absorbing more solar heat and
increasing even more the local temperature. Many plants and animals adapted to current polar
environment conditions would face risk of extinction with the new environmental changes.
would lead to the glacial maximum (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 92). However, this broad
pattern also comprises many smaller-scale oscillations, such as 6-20 thousand years Bond Cycles
(HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 137), which depict gradual cooling periods. Bond Cycles are
still composed of even smaller scale oscillations called Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events
(HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 136). The D-O oscillations define stadials (relatively cooler
periods) and interstadials (warmer periods).
The temperature changes during the Great Ice Age are in broad agreement with the
Milankovich cycles of 100, 41, 23 and 19 thousand years. Through these cycles, the strength of
summer insolation on the Northern Hemisphere is affected by changes in Earths orbital patterns
of eccentricity, obliquity and precession (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 77 and 98). Cooler
summers would not be able to melt the winter snowfall, thereby increasing the thickness and
extension of ice sheets. Intriguingly, around 1 million years ago, the most significant pattern of
glaciation cycles changed from 41 to 100 thousand years (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 98).
Models based on D changes in Antarctic ice cores estimate that Antarctic temperature
were 4 C lower than today in the last glacial maximum (18 thousand years ago), and 2 oC higher
during the last interglacial, 125 thousand years ago (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 117). In
Northern Hemisphere, beetle records show a variation of almost 20 oC in Britain, from the last
glaciation maximum to early Holocene (8 thousand years ago) (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p.
191).
o
Figure 2 Ocean circulation affecting CO2 cycle during the Great Ice Age
The chemical reaction of carbonate weathering and deposition is neutral in the total
sum, but these two processes where not in balance during the transition between glacials and
interglacials. For example, eustatic sea level fall during global cooling would expose carbonate
platforms on the continental shelf, and their weathering would bring CO2 from the atmosphere
to the oceans. During the transition from glacial/stadial to interglacial/interstadial, the relative
sea level rise stimulated chemical carbon deposition by coral reefs, but in their respective
chemical reaction, they pump part of the CO2 into the atmosphere again, reinforcing the
greenhouse trend in the short term.
In the long term, during the Great Ice Age, the weathering of silicate minerals, especially
from the uplifted ridges of Himalaya and Western USA, brought to oceans a great amount of
atmospheric CO2.
Changes on Moonsons
These climatic oscillations during the Great Ice Age caused changes in Earths
temperature, insolation and other climatic attributes. Particularly, summer monsoon strength
decreased during glacial periods, and increased during hotter periods (interglacials or
interstadials).
With lower temperature during glaciation, the continental air is less able to rise and to
produce a low-pressure zone that would attract the oceanic wet winds. In addition, with lower
temperatures in the oceans, there is less evaporation from the sea and thus less rainfall when
the summer ocean monsoon reach the continents. During the last glaciation maximum, eighteen
thousand years ago, there is sedimentary evidence that the Sahara region and Arabian Peninsula
had much broader sand dune deserts, because the monsoon rainfall was not strong enough to
reach these areas and support vegetation growth.
On the other hand, during interglacial periods, the opposite trend happens. The warm
continents heat the air, which rises, creating higher contrast in relation to the air pressure over
the oceans, thus attracting the humid winds to the continents. In the Holocene climatic
optimum, between nine and six thousand years ago, when the temperature used to be 1C
higher than now, the monsoon was so stronger that, in Africa, the Sahara was able to support
many permanent lakes and vegetation covered many sand dune areas.
These variations of the monsoon can be clearly observed using the proxy of the grain
size in loess-soil deposits from Tibetan Plateau and the methane concentration in glaciers ice
cores. The graphs of these proxies show an oscillatory pattern of monsoonal strength, in fairly
good correlation with the temperature changes recorded by 18O and D proxies in these ice
cores.
The couplets of loess and soil deposits in the Tibetan plateau give a proxy sedimentary
evidence for monsoon changes during the last 2.5 million years. The soil layers with low
carbonate content developed when the summer monsoon was strong and brought enough
rainfall to support vegetation growth. On the other hand, during glacial periods, cold and strong
winds from continent to sea deposited loess with higher carbonate content, which came from
the dryer deserts. The grain size in these sequences can be used as a quantitative variable,
assuming that increases in grain size indicate a relative increase in aridity.
Another important proxy would be the concentration of methane (CH4) in ice cores from
Antarctica (last 400 thousand years) and Greenland (last 110 thousand years, but with more
detailed time scale). As the methane was trapped in the ice from atmosphere, it gives a good
picture of global changes, because the mixing time in atmosphere is very rapid (less than 10
years) in geological time scale. The atmospheric methane signal responds strongly to the
productivity of the wetlands in low latitudes, because these wetlands thrive with stronger
monsoonal rainfall. However, the signal of atmospheric methane concentration can be
influenced by high latitude wetlands during interglacial periods, and can also be rapidly released
during glacial terminations from the methane clathrates on seabed.
Effects on Vegetation
In low latitudes, the main change in the transition from interglacials to glacials would
probably be the decrease in rainfall. This decrease would restrain the areas that support tropical
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Conclusion
A future world with increasing emissions of GHG adds a new factor that was not present
during most of the Great Ice Age. The climate models agree about the global warming trend in
the short-term, but there are still great uncertainties about longer-term climate projections,
because the future scenarios are different from our past records. Following this emissions trend,
human society is risking ruining the climate equilibrium that helped humanity to develop during
the current interglacial. Even if our society stops the GHG emissions, the feedback mechanisms
of the biochemical cycles would take centuries, thousands of even millions of years (i.e.,
geological timescale), to return to a new equilibrium (HYDEN, COE & WILSON, 2007, p. 209; IPCC,
2013, p. 28).
Geological research about past climates reveals many impacts that current society may
face if maintains the trend of GHG emissions, approaching greenhouse conditions closer to the
Cretaceous (SKELTON, 2006, p. 186). These geological evidences are especially important to
corroborate projections from climate models (IPCC, 2013, p. 26). Among many foreseen impacts,
there are higher temperature (IPCC, 2013, p. 20), sea-level rise (SKELTON, 2006, p. 69; IPCC,
2013, p. 25), increase in storm intensity (SKELTON, 2006, p. 179), decrease in polar albedo
(SKELTON, 2006, p. 280), loss of polar ice, as well as the other changes in organic and silicatecarbonate carbon cycles discussed along this essay. All these environmental changes may cause
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an accelerated rate of extinction of species that fail to adapt to these new conditions. Moreover,
human adaption to these changes would cause high economic costs. A higher awareness of
these possible impacts may help our society to change these drivers of climate change.
References:
HYDEN, F.M.; COE, A.L.; WILSON, C.L. (2007) The Great Ice Age. Milton Keynes, The Open
University.
IPCC, 2013 (2013) Summary for Policymakers in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science
Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel
on
Climate
Change
[Online].
Available
at
http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf (Accessed 3
March 2016).
SKELTON, P. (ed.) (2006) The Cretaceous World. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press / Milton
Keynes, The Open University.