File:Figure 3.12 - Deuterium, atmospheric CO2, CH4 and N2O from air trapped in Antarctic ice cores.png

Variations in deuterium (δD; black), a proxy for local temperature, and the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO2 (red), CH4 (blue), and nitrous oxide (N2O; green) derived from air trapped within ice cores from Antarctica and from recent atmospheric measurements (Petit et al., 1999^[1]; Indermühle et al., 2000^[2]; EPICA, 2004^[3]; Siegenthaler et al., 2005a^[4]; Siegenthaler et al., 2005b^[5]; Spahni et al., 2005^[6]). This points to a strong coupling of the climate and the carbon cycle. The shading indicates the last interglacial warm periods. Interglacial periods also existed prior to 450 ka, but these were apparently colder than the typical interglacials of the latest Quaternary. The length of the current interglacial is not unusual in the context of the last 650 ka. The stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O marine records (dark grey), a proxy for global ice volume fluctuations (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005^[7]), is displayed for comparison with the ice core data. Downward trends in the benthic δ18O curve reflect increasing ice volumes on land. Note that the shaded vertical bars are based on the ice core age model (EPICA, 2004^[3]), and that the marine record is plotted on its original time scale based on tuning to the orbital parameters (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005^[7]). The stars and labels indicate atmospheric concentrations at year 2000 (From IPCC, 2007^[8]).

1. ↑ Petit, J.R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N.I., Barnola, J.M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Davis, J., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotyakov, V.M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V.Y., Lorius, C., Pépin, L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E. and Stievenard, M. 1999. Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica, Nature, 399, 429-436.
2. ↑ Indermühle, A., Monnin, E., Stauffer, B., Stocker, T.F. and Wahlen, M. 2000. Atmospheric CO2 concentration from 60 to 20 kyr BP from the Taylor dome ice core, Antarctica, Geophysical Research Letters, 27, 735-738.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} EPICA community members. 2004. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core, Nature, 429, 623-628.
4. ↑ Siegenthaler, U., Monnin, K., Kawamura, R., Spahni, J., Schwander, B., Stauffer, T.F., Stocker, J-M., Barnola, H. and Fischer, H. 2005a. Supporting evidence from the EPICA Dronning Maud Land ice core for atmospheric CO2 changes during the past millennium, Tellus B, 57, 51-57.
5. ↑ Siegenthaler, U., Stocker, T.F., Monnin, E., Luthi, D., Schwander, J., Stauffer, B., Raynaud, D., Barnola, J-M., Fischer, H., Masson-Delmotte, V. and Jouzel, J. 2005b. Stable Carbon Cycle-Climate Relationship During the Late Pleistocene, Science, 310, 1313-1317.
6. ↑ Spahni, R., Chappellaz, J., Stocker, T.F., Loulergue, L., Hausammann, G., Kawamura, K., Fluckiger, J., Schwander, J., Raynaud, D., Masson-Delmotte, V. and Jouzel, J. 2005. Atmospheric Methane and Nitrous Oxide of the Late Pleistocene from Antarctic Ice Cores, Science, 310, 1317-1321.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Lisiecki, L.E. and Raymo, M.E. 2005. A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic d18O records, Paleoceanography, 20, PA1003, doi:1010.1029/2004PA001071.
8. ↑ IPCC 2007. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.