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Carbon cycling and chronology of climate warming during the Palaeocene/Eocene transition

Nature volume 401, pages 775–778 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Current models of the global carbon cycle lack natural mechanisms to explain known large, transient shifts in past records of the stable carbon-isotope ratio (δ13C) of carbon reservoirs1,2. The injection into the atmosphere of ∼1,200–2,000 gigatons of carbon, as methane from the decomposition of sedimentary methane hydrates, has been proposed to explain a δ13C anomaly3,4 associated with high-latitude warming1 and changes in marine5,6,7 and terrestrial8 biota near the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary, about 55 million years ago. These events may thus be considered as a natural ‘experiment’ on the effects of transient greenhouse warming. Here we use physical, chemical and spectral analyses of a sediment core from the western North Atlantic Ocean to show that two-thirds of the carbon-isotope anomaly occurred within no more than a few thousand years, indicating that carbon was catastrophically released into the ocean and atmosphere. Both the δ13C anomaly and biotic changes began between 54.93 and 54.98 million years ago, and are synchronous in oceans and on land. The longevity of the δ13C anomaly suggests that the residence time of carbon in the Palaeocene global carbon cycle was ∼120 thousand years, which is similar to the modelled response after a massive input of methane3,4. Our results suggest that large natural perturbations to the global carbon cycle have occurred in the past—probably by abrupt failure of sedimentary carbon reservoirs—at rates that are similar to those induced today by human activity.

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Figure 1: Cyclostratigraphy and magnetochronology of the uppermost Palaeocene.
Figure 2: Stratigraphy around the δ13C anomaly.
Figure 3: Power spectra for Site 1051 and modern summer insolation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Dickens, M. P. Aubry, W. A. Berggren, D. Kent, P. Koch and D. Kroon for discussions, and the staff of the Ocean Drilling Program in Bremen for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions—US Science Support Advisory Committee (JOI-USSAC), and the National Science Foundation and the Deutsche Forhungsgemeinschaft.

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  1. MS-23, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, 02540-1541, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard D Norris

  2. Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Universität Bremen, Postfach 330 440, Bremen, 28334, Germany

    Ursula Röhl

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Correspondence to Richard D Norris.

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Norris, R., Röhl, U. Carbon cycling and chronology of climate warming during the Palaeocene/Eocene transition. Nature 401, 775–778 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44545

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