The Carbon Cycle as the Main Determinant of Glacial-Interglacial Transitions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Earth's glacial-interglacial cycles can be modeled primarily through the carbon cycle, using a mathematical system that reproduces observed climate patterns and asymmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking the Earth's carbon exchange system to glacial cycles, reproducing key features of climate data.

Findings

Model reproduces 100 kyr glacial cycles

Captures asymmetries of rapid heating and slow cooling

Aligns with ice core data patterns

Abstract

An intriguing problem in climate science is the existence of Earth's glacial cycles. We show that it is possible to generate these periodic changes in climate by means of the Earth's carbon cycle as the main determinant factor. The carbon exchange between the Ocean, the Continent and the Atmosphere is modeled by means of a tridimensional Lotka-Volterra system and the resulting atmospheric carbon cycle is used as the unique radiative forcing mechanism. It is shown that the carbon dioxide (CO$_{2}$) and temperature anomaly curves, which are thus obtained, have the same first-order structure as the 100 kyr glacial--interglacial cycles depicted by the Vostok ice core data, reproducing the asymmetries of rapid heating--slow cooling, and short interglacial--long glacial ages.