Glacial atmospheric CO_2 decline in association with decrease of marine sedimentary phosphorus

Since the discovery from the ice-core record of South Pole revealed that atmospheric concentration of CO2 of the last glacial was 80―100 ppm less than that of Holocene1], many researchers2―6] have obtained a series of important findings to seek the dominant fac- tors controlling its change from marine physical, chemical and biological processes, among which the view has gained increasing attention that phosphorus, as a macronutrient, is a crucial limitation to marine primary production, a…

Glacial atmospheric CO2 decline in association with decrease of marine sedimentary phosphorus

The environmental and biogeochemical information extracted from the sediments col- lected from the northern shelf of the South China Sea shows that terrigenous inputs of phosphorus into the sea remained relatively constant, and the variation of phosphorus contents at different depths was caused by climatic and environmental changes. The findings also suggest that the vertical varia- tion of phosphorus content was opposite to those of calcium carbonate and cadmium, and the func- tional correlation between CO2 and PO43? in seawater was given by calculating the chemical equilib- rium, indicating that the accumulation of marine sedimentary phosphorus may have something to do with the variation of atmospheric CO2. The decreased phosphorus accumulation as well as the cor- respondingly-increased calcium carbonate content might be one of key factors causing glacial at- mospheric CO2 decline.