How carbon leakage could lead to human civilization

New York, July 31 (IANS) An increase in the activity of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Southern Ocean could explain the mysterious growth of human civilization 11,000 years ago, according to a study

. the increase in the upwelling of the Southern Ocean could be responsible for stabilizing the climate of the Holocene – the period reaching more than 10,000 years before the industrial revolution – critical for development of human civilization.

The Holocene was an "interglacial period", one of the few warm climate intervals that occurred during glacial cycles in the last million years.

The retreat of glaciers has opened a wider landscape to humans, and higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere have allowed for more productive agriculture, allowing people to reduce their harvesting activities and build settlements permanent workers, explained the researchers.

"Increased traffic in the Southern Ocean has allowed CO2 to escape into the atmosphere, working to warm the planet," said Daniel Sigman, a professor at the university. of Princeton.

For the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience have studied three types of fossils from several different regions of the Southern Ocean: diatoms and foraminifera, two shell microorganisms found in the oceans, and deep-sea corals.

Isotopic measurements of nitrogen indicate that during the Holocene water, rich in nutrients and CO2, sprang from the deep ocean to the surface of the ocean. Southern Ocean.

The carbon uptake by the ocean slows the increase of atmospheric CO2 produced by the burning of fossil fuels, and the upwelling of the Southern Ocean still allows for a part of this CO2 to flow back into the atmosphere.

Oceanic changes could also have implications for predicting how global warming will affect ocean circulation and how much atmospheric CO2 will increase due to the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said.

– IANS

asj / rt / anp / bg