The Impact of Orbital Precession on Air‐Sea CO2 Exchange in the Southern Ocean

Abstract

Abstract Orbital precession has been linked to glacial cycles and the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, yet the direct impact of precession on the carbon cycle is not well understood. We analyze output from an Earth system model configured under different orbital parameters to isolate the impact of precession on air‐sea CO2 flux in the Southern Ocean—a component of the global carbon cycle that is thought to play a key role on past atmospheric CO2 variations. Here, we demonstrate that periods of high precession are coincident with anomalous CO2 outgassing from the Southern Ocean. Under high precession, we find a poleward shift in the southern westerly winds, enhanced Southern Ocean meridional overturning, and an increase in the surface ocean partial pressure of CO2 along the core of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. These results suggest that orbital precession may have played an important role in driving changes in atmospheric CO2.

Keywords

• carbon cycle
• southern ocean
• precession