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Introduction
Records of changing atmospheric radiocarbon concentration (δ14C), reported as per mil deviations from pre-industrial values after correction for decay and fractionation) from the last deglaciation suggest that an anomaly during the Younger Dryas cold phase is the largest of the last 15,000 years. However, the cause of the Younger Dryas δ14C changes are debated, and are either attributed to changes in the production rate of 14C due to changes in solar activity or the Earth's magnetic field and/or changes in the carbon cycle. The latter is strongly influenced by carbon exchange between the atmosphere and other reservoirs, such as the deep ocean. Since reorganization of the North Atlantic's thermohaline circulation is widely held to drive abrupt climate change a corresponding response in surface-ocean and atmospheric Dryas δ14C is expected. We demonstrate a direct correlation between surface ocean ventilation (expressed here as a marine radiocarbon reservoir age) and changing atmospheric Dryas δ14C reconstructed from the Cariaco Basin, in the southern Caribbean Sea. We are motivated to generate these high quality Dryas 14C data for the surface waters of the NE Atlantic during the last deglaciation because they provide a unique opportunity to study processes central to our understanding of long-term variability in ocean overturning rate. By focussing on a time interval (Younger Dryas) when climate transitions were both rapid and large-scale, we will utilize the quantitative data generated to critically test scenarios of overturning rate through a collaborative modelling study.
Project Duration: 1 Apr 2005 - 30 Sep 2007
This project is funded by NERC - Grant Ref. NE/C000137/1 - through the RAPID Climate Change NERC directed mode programme.
Access to data and information
Data and software supplied from this project to the BADC will be stored in the BADC RAPID archive.
Access to the archive is currently restricted to participants to this particular project. If you are a programme participant and would like to access this RAPID project data, then please apply for access* to the RAPID data.
You will be requested to abide by the
RAPID Climate Change Data Policy.
Data management, availability and use are ruled by the
RAPID Climate Change Programme Data Management Plan
(PDF document).
Access to Hadley Centre model data held at the BADC is subject to the signature of the NERC-Met Office agreement.
* Note that to apply for access to this dataset, you should first register as a BADC user (anyone is allowed to register). If you are already a registered BADC user, skip this step. If you have forgotten your BADC user ID and/or password, please contact the BADC helpdesk at badc@rl.ac.uk. To register as a new BADC user, please follow the instructions online.
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