Antarctica has allowed the extension of the ice record of atmospheric composition and climate to the past four glacial-interglacial cycles. The succession of changes through each climate cycle and termination was similar, and atmospheric and climate properties oscillated between stable bounds. Interglacial periods differed in temporal evolution and duration. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane correlate well with Antarctic air-temperature throughout the record. Present-day atmospheric burdens of these two important greenhouse gases seem to have been unprecedented during the past 420,000 years.

No abstract

No abstract

Recent time-series measurements of atmospheric O2 show that the land biosphere and world oceans annually sequestered 1.4 +/- 0.8 and 2.0 +/- 0.6 gigatons of carbon, respectively, between mid-1991 and mid-1997. The rapid storage of carbon by the land biosphere from 1991 to 1997 contrasts with the 1980s, when the land biosphere was approximately neutral. Comparison with measurements of delta13CO2 implies an isotopic flux of 89 +/- 21 gigatons of carbon per mil per year, in agreement with model- and inventory-based estimates of this flux. Both the delta13C and the O2 data show significant interannual variability in carbon storage over the period of record. The general agreement of the independent estimates from O2 and delta13C is a robust signal of variable carbon uptake by both the land biosphere and the oceans.

No abstract