Low atmospheric CO2 levels before the rise of forested ecosystems
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The emergence of forests on Earth (~385 million years ago, Ma)1 has been linked to an order-of-magnitude decline in atmospheric CO2 levels and global climatic cooling by altering continental weathering processes, but observational constraints on atmospheric CO2 before the rise of forests carry large, often unbound, uncertainties. Here, we calibrate a mechanistic model for gas exchange in modern lycophytes and constrain atmospheric CO2 levels 410–380 Ma from related fossilized plants with bound uncertainties of approximately ±100 ppm (1 sd). We find that the atmosphere contained ~525–715 ppm CO2 before continents were afforested, and that Earth was partially glaciated according to a palaeoclimate model. A process-driven biogeochemical model (COPSE) shows the appearance of trees with deep roots did not dramatically enhance atmospheric CO2 removal. Rather, shallow-rooted vascular ecosystems could have simultaneously caused abrupt atmospheric oxygenation and climatic cooling long before the rise of forests, although earlier CO2 levels are still unknown.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 7616 |
| Tidsskrift | Nature Communications |
| Vol/bind | 13 |
| Antal sider | 10 |
| ISSN | 2041-1723 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2022 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
We thank T. Ziegler and F. McSweeney for providing specimens from the palaeobotanical collection of Museum Victoria, O. Seberg and A. A. Pedersen for providing access to lycophyte cultures in the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden, University of Copenhagen, and to F. Sønderholm and C. J. Bjerrum for assistance and use of pCO metre. T.W.D. was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation through its Distinguished Associate Professsor program (grant no. CF16–0876) and the Danish Council for Independent Research (grant nos. 7014-00295B, 8102-00005B). C. J. was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF EAR-1455258). The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Land Brandenburg for supporting this project by providing resources on the high-performance computer system at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. J. B. was funded through the VeWA consortium (Past Warm Periods as Natural Analogues of our high-COClimate Future) by the LOEWE programme of the Hessen Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Germany. B.H.L acknowledges funding from the NERC (grant nos NE/R001324/1, NE/T00392/1). 2 2
Funding Information:
We thank T. Ziegler and F. McSweeney for providing specimens from the palaeobotanical collection of Museum Victoria, O. Seberg and A. A. Pedersen for providing access to lycophyte cultures in the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden, University of Copenhagen, and to F. Sønderholm and C. J. Bjerrum for assistance and use of p CO2 metre. T.W.D. was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation through its Distinguished Associate Professsor program (grant no. CF16–0876) and the Danish Council for Independent Research (grant nos. 7014-00295B, 8102-00005B). C. J. was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF EAR-1455258). The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Land Brandenburg for supporting this project by providing resources on the high-performance computer system at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. J. B. was funded through the VeWA consortium (Past Warm Periods as Natural Analogues of our high-CO 2 Climate Future) by the LOEWE programme of the Hessen Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Germany. B.H.L acknowledges funding from the NERC (grant nos NE/R001324/1, NE/T00392/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
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