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History of carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years II: Revised calculations and new data

History of carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years II: Revised calculations and new data
History of carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years II: Revised calculations and new data
In an earlier contribution to this journal, we provided a reconstruction of seawater carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years (Tyrrell, T. and Zeebe, R.E., Geochim. Cosmoch. Acta, 68, 3521-3530, 2004; TZ04 hereafter). Since then, multiple new and more robust data sets on past ocean carbonate chemistry, atmospheric CO2, and major ion seawater composition have emerged, which prompt new CO2 system reconstructions. In addition, we have gained new insight into the effects of past major ion seawater composition on equilibrium constants affecting CO2 system calculations — most notably due to sulfate. Here we present new reconstructions of past ocean carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2 based on new data and revised calculations, including error analysis. We also provide simple corrections for past equilibrium constants, supported by experimental data and well-suited for numerical models and observational studies on multi-million year time scales. Our updated result for just the seawater carbonate ion concentration (∼2.3 to 4-fold lower 100 Myr ago) is similar to TZ04, indicating that our core approach is robust. However, all revised reconstructions using new alkenone and boron data now suggest that long-term ocean inventories of total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) were similar to modern over the Cenozoic. This result contrasts strongly with one of TZ04’s scenarios, which featured high Paleocene-Eocene DIC/TA inventories and was based on boron-derived pH values that have recently been revised. Because the carbonate system has two degrees of freedom, consistency checks can be made when three or more parameters are determined. Overall, our estimated long-term trends in CO2 system parameters across the Cenozoic appear consistent, regardless of whether we combine our carbonate ion concentration with alkenone-derived pCO2 or boron-derived pH. Our results suggest convergence towards a consistent picture of Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 and seawater chemistry. Finally, we identify changes in past seawater sulfate as a conceptual and practical problem for seawater pH reconstructions.
0016-7037
373-392
Zeebe, Richard E.
a94a934c-a71d-465c-99f0-83067df5e50b
Tyrrell, Toby
6808411d-c9cf-47a3-88b6-c7c294f2d114
Zeebe, Richard E.
a94a934c-a71d-465c-99f0-83067df5e50b
Tyrrell, Toby
6808411d-c9cf-47a3-88b6-c7c294f2d114

Zeebe, Richard E. and Tyrrell, Toby (2019) History of carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years II: Revised calculations and new data. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 257, 373-392. (doi:10.1016/j.gca.2019.02.041).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In an earlier contribution to this journal, we provided a reconstruction of seawater carbonate ion concentration over the last 100 million years (Tyrrell, T. and Zeebe, R.E., Geochim. Cosmoch. Acta, 68, 3521-3530, 2004; TZ04 hereafter). Since then, multiple new and more robust data sets on past ocean carbonate chemistry, atmospheric CO2, and major ion seawater composition have emerged, which prompt new CO2 system reconstructions. In addition, we have gained new insight into the effects of past major ion seawater composition on equilibrium constants affecting CO2 system calculations — most notably due to sulfate. Here we present new reconstructions of past ocean carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2 based on new data and revised calculations, including error analysis. We also provide simple corrections for past equilibrium constants, supported by experimental data and well-suited for numerical models and observational studies on multi-million year time scales. Our updated result for just the seawater carbonate ion concentration (∼2.3 to 4-fold lower 100 Myr ago) is similar to TZ04, indicating that our core approach is robust. However, all revised reconstructions using new alkenone and boron data now suggest that long-term ocean inventories of total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) were similar to modern over the Cenozoic. This result contrasts strongly with one of TZ04’s scenarios, which featured high Paleocene-Eocene DIC/TA inventories and was based on boron-derived pH values that have recently been revised. Because the carbonate system has two degrees of freedom, consistency checks can be made when three or more parameters are determined. Overall, our estimated long-term trends in CO2 system parameters across the Cenozoic appear consistent, regardless of whether we combine our carbonate ion concentration with alkenone-derived pCO2 or boron-derived pH. Our results suggest convergence towards a consistent picture of Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 and seawater chemistry. Finally, we identify changes in past seawater sulfate as a conceptual and practical problem for seawater pH reconstructions.

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ZeebeTyrrellGCA18R_MSonly - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 February 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 March 2019
Published date: 15 July 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 429111
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/429111
ISSN: 0016-7037
PURE UUID: 9b4c5fe2-55b2-4778-8c80-7c561bde96a8
ORCID for Toby Tyrrell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1002-1716

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Date deposited: 21 Mar 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:40

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Contributors

Author: Richard E. Zeebe
Author: Toby Tyrrell ORCID iD

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