Biomedical subjects

TF Stocker

Publications and source records attributed to TF Stocker.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Variations in atmospheric N2O concentration during abrupt climatic changes

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas that is presently increasing at a rate of 0.25 percent per year. Records measured along two ice cores from Summit in Central Greenland provide information about variations in atmospheric N2O concentration in the past. The record covering the past millennium reduces the uncertainty regarding the preindustrial concentration. Records covering the last glacial-interglacial transition and a fast climatic change during the last ice age show that the N2O concentration changed in parallel with fast temperature variations in the Northern Hemisphere. This provides important information about the response of the environment to global climatic changes.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1999

Global warming and marine carbon cycle feedbacks on future atmospheric CO2

A low-order physical-biogeochemical climate model was used to project atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming for scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The North Atlantic thermohaline circulation weakens in all global warming simulations and collapses at high levels of carbon dioxide. Projected changes in the marine carbon cycle have a modest impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide. Compared with the control, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by 4 percent at year 2100 and 20 percent at year 2500. The reduction in ocean carbon uptake can be mainly explained by sea surface warming. The projected changes of the marine biological cycle compensate the reduction in downward mixing of anthropogenic carbon, except when the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation collapses.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

North atlantic oscillation dynamics recorded in greenland ice cores

Carefully selected ice core data from Greenland can be used to reconstruct an annual proxy North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) index. This index for the past 350 years indicates that the NAO is an intermittent climate oscillation with temporally active (coherent) and passive (incoherent) phases. No indication for a single, persistent, multiannual NAO frequency is found. In active phases, most of the energy is located in the frequency band with periods less than about 15 years. In addition, variability on time scales of 80 to 90 years has been observed since the mid-19th century.

Journal Article↗