Insights into Glacial Terminations from a South Atlantic Perspective

Roberts, J. (2016) Insights into Glacial Terminations from a South Atlantic Perspective. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

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Abstract

The last two glacial terminations represent the most recent, and best documented, periods of Earth warming in the geological record. During these terminations atmospheric CO2 rose by approx- imately 100 ppm and global mean temperatures increased by 4-6 o C. Whilst the driver for these deglaciations ultimately derives from changes in the insolation forcing at the edge of the atmo- sphere, feedbacks within the Earth’s climate system act to amplify these small external forcings tipping the Earth from a cold glacial climate state to a warm interglacial climate state. A key question in Quaternary climate science is understanding which feedbacks are important in regulat- ing global climate on glacial-interglacial timescales. On this topic, the Southern Ocean has long been considered to be an important player in regulating atmospheric CO2 on glacial-interglacial timescales. This thesis investigates some of the hypothesised drivers of changes in atmospheric CO2 on glacial-interglacial timescales by generating high-resolution multi-proxy records from the Southern Ocean spanning the last two glacial terminations. In particular, I focus on changes in the structure, circulation and biological productivity within the sub-Antarctic zone.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2016AREP; IA71
Subjects:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Divisions:	01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2016 15:02
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2016 15:02
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/3673

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