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Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) represents a ~500-kyr period of global warming ~40 million years ago and is associated with a rise in atmospheric CO(2) concentrations, but the cause of this CO(2) rise remains enigmatic. Here we show, based on osmium isotope ratios ((187)Os/(188)Os) of mari...

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Autores principales: van der Ploeg, Robin, Selby, David, Cramwinckel, Margot J., Li, Yang, Bohaty, Steven M., Middelburg, Jack J., Sluijs, Appy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6056486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30038400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05104-9
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author van der Ploeg, Robin
Selby, David
Cramwinckel, Margot J.
Li, Yang
Bohaty, Steven M.
Middelburg, Jack J.
Sluijs, Appy
author_facet van der Ploeg, Robin
Selby, David
Cramwinckel, Margot J.
Li, Yang
Bohaty, Steven M.
Middelburg, Jack J.
Sluijs, Appy
author_sort van der Ploeg, Robin
collection PubMed
description The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) represents a ~500-kyr period of global warming ~40 million years ago and is associated with a rise in atmospheric CO(2) concentrations, but the cause of this CO(2) rise remains enigmatic. Here we show, based on osmium isotope ratios ((187)Os/(188)Os) of marine sediments and published records of the carbonate compensation depth (CCD), that the continental silicate weathering response to the inferred CO(2) rise and warming was strongly diminished during the MECO—in contrast to expectations from the silicate weathering thermostat hypothesis. We surmise that global early and middle Eocene warmth gradually diminished the weatherability of continental rocks and hence the strength of the silicate weathering feedback, allowing for the prolonged accumulation of volcanic CO(2) in the oceans and atmosphere during the MECO. These results are supported by carbon cycle modeling simulations, which highlight the fundamental importance of a variable weathering feedback strength in climate and carbon cycle interactions in Earth’s history.
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spelling pubmed-60564862018-07-26 Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback van der Ploeg, Robin Selby, David Cramwinckel, Margot J. Li, Yang Bohaty, Steven M. Middelburg, Jack J. Sluijs, Appy Nat Commun Article The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) represents a ~500-kyr period of global warming ~40 million years ago and is associated with a rise in atmospheric CO(2) concentrations, but the cause of this CO(2) rise remains enigmatic. Here we show, based on osmium isotope ratios ((187)Os/(188)Os) of marine sediments and published records of the carbonate compensation depth (CCD), that the continental silicate weathering response to the inferred CO(2) rise and warming was strongly diminished during the MECO—in contrast to expectations from the silicate weathering thermostat hypothesis. We surmise that global early and middle Eocene warmth gradually diminished the weatherability of continental rocks and hence the strength of the silicate weathering feedback, allowing for the prolonged accumulation of volcanic CO(2) in the oceans and atmosphere during the MECO. These results are supported by carbon cycle modeling simulations, which highlight the fundamental importance of a variable weathering feedback strength in climate and carbon cycle interactions in Earth’s history. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6056486/ /pubmed/30038400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05104-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
van der Ploeg, Robin
Selby, David
Cramwinckel, Margot J.
Li, Yang
Bohaty, Steven M.
Middelburg, Jack J.
Sluijs, Appy
Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title_full Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title_fullStr Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title_full_unstemmed Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title_short Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
title_sort middle eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6056486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30038400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05104-9
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