Climate of the Past
Climate of the Past
CP
Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2177-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2177-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
03 Nov 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 03 Nov 2023

Rejuvenating the ocean: mean ocean radiocarbon, CO2 release, and radiocarbon budget closure across the last deglaciation

Luke Skinner, Francois Primeau, Aurich Jeltsch-Thömmes, Fortunat Joos, Peter Köhler, and Edouard Bard

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Latest update: 31 Oct 2025
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The manuscript by Skinner et al. presents a unique and useful data compilation of ocean-atmosphere radiocarbon age offset (B-Atm) across the last deglaciation. The presented global average B-Atm represents a new benchmark for modelling studies seeking to constrain the ocean's role in past atmospheric CO2 change, and seeking closure of the global radiocarbon cycle. The latter is important for constraining the carbon cycle evolution over the last deglaciation (which remains to be quantitatively accounted for), as well as the history of the geodynamo and solar activity.
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Short summary
Radiocarbon is best known as a dating tool, but it also allows us to track CO2 exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. Using decades of data and novel mapping methods, we have charted the ocean’s average radiocarbon ″age” since the last Ice Age. Combined with climate model simulations, these data quantify the ocean’s role in atmospheric CO2 rise since the last Ice Age while also revealing that Earth likely received far more cosmic radiation during the last Ice Age than hitherto believed.
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