23
Biogeochemical Cycles and Aerosols Over
the Last Million Years
Nathaelle Bouttes, Laurent Bopp, Samuel Albani, Gilles Ramstein,
Tristan Vadsaria, and Emilie Capron
Introduction
The biogeochemical cycles encompass the exchange of
chemical elements between reservoirs such as the atmosphere, ocean, land and lithosphere. Those exchanges
involve biological, geological and chemical processes, hence
the term “biogeochemical cycles”. A widely known cycle
(which is not a biogeochemical cycle) is the water cycle,
whose impact on climate is of major importance and which
has been described in Volume 1, Chap. 1. Similarly,
chemical elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and
sulphur are also exchanged during cycles. Some of these
elements can significantly impact climate through their effect
on the atmospheric energy budget when they are in gaseous
form (CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O). The biogeochemical cycles are also
affected by changes in climate, constituting a feedback in the
Earth system. Other chemical compounds present in the
atmosphere also influence the amount of energy available at
the surface and therefore the dynamics of the climate: these
are aerosols, small liquid or solid particles in suspension in
the air. Because of the effect of climate on these chemical
elements and particles, they sometimes record the changes
that modified their cycle. It is possible to measure many of
these tracers, which provide a valuable insight into past
climate changes.
The link between the composition of the atmosphere and
climate was discovered in the nineteenth century through the
work of Jean-Baptiste Fourier, a French mathematician. He
showed that the Earth would be much colder than it currently
is, if it was heated by incoming solar radiation alone. To
explain the additional heating, he proposed, among other
possibilities, that the Earth is insulated by gases present in
the atmosphere. This effect of atmospheric gases blocking
some of the infrared radiation emitted by the planet is now
known as the greenhouse effect. Later, in 1860, John Tyndall, an English chemist, demonstrated that the two main
constituents of our atmosphere, dinitrogen and dioxygen, are
transparent to infrared radiation and therefore do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. On the other hand, he
identified water vapour (H 2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as
the two main greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. This led
the way for another chemist, Svante Arrhenius, who, in
1896, was the first to estimate the change in the average
temperature of the Earth’s surface triggered by a change in
the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Lastly, it was
only in the second half of the twentieth century that
advances in measurement techniques made it possible to
measure the impacts of other gases such as methane (CH 4 ),
nitrous oxide (N 2 O), ozone (O 3 ), and chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), on the greenhouse effect.
The direct effect of aerosols on climate was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century to
explain the cold winter of 1783–84. Benjamin Franklin
noted there was a “constant fog over all Europe, and a great
part of North America” which resulted in colder conditions.
He suggested volcanic eruptions in Iceland as a possible
explanation for this fog. Since then, the big volcanic eruptions that have occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, such as the Krakatoa (1883), Santa Maria (1902),
N. Bouttes (&) Á L. Bopp Á S. Albani Á G. Ramstein Á T. Vadsaria
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement,
LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay,
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: Nathaelle.bouttes@lsce.ipsl.fr
S. Albani
Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences,
University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
T. Vadsaria
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The
University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
E. Capron
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road,
Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK
E. Capron
Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, Niels Bohr Institute,
University of Copenhagen, Juliannes Maries Vej 30,
2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
G. Ramstein et al. (eds.), Paleoclimatology, Frontiers in Earth Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24982-3_23
271
Biogeochemical Cycles and Aerosols Over
the Last Million Years
Nathaelle Bouttes, Laurent Bopp, Samuel Albani, Gilles Ramstein,
Tristan Vadsaria, and Emilie Capron
Introduction
The biogeochemical cycles encompass the exchange of
chemical elements between reservoirs such as the atmosphere, ocean, land and lithosphere. Those exchanges
involve biological, geological and chemical processes, hence
the term “biogeochemical cycles”. A widely known cycle
(which is not a biogeochemical cycle) is the water cycle,
whose impact on climate is of major importance and which
has been described in Volume 1, Chap. 1. Similarly,
chemical elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and
sulphur are also exchanged during cycles. Some of these
elements can significantly impact climate through their effect
on the atmospheric energy budget when they are in gaseous
form (CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O). The biogeochemical cycles are also
affected by changes in climate, constituting a feedback in the
Earth system. Other chemical compounds present in the
atmosphere also influence the amount of energy available at
the surface and therefore the dynamics of the climate: these
are aerosols, small liquid or solid particles in suspension in
the air. Because of the effect of climate on these chemical
elements and particles, they sometimes record the changes
that modified their cycle. It is possible to measure many of
these tracers, which provide a valuable insight into past
climate changes.
The link between the composition of the atmosphere and
climate was discovered in the nineteenth century through the
work of Jean-Baptiste Fourier, a French mathematician. He
showed that the Earth would be much colder than it currently
is, if it was heated by incoming solar radiation alone. To
explain the additional heating, he proposed, among other
possibilities, that the Earth is insulated by gases present in
the atmosphere. This effect of atmospheric gases blocking
some of the infrared radiation emitted by the planet is now
known as the greenhouse effect. Later, in 1860, John Tyndall, an English chemist, demonstrated that the two main
constituents of our atmosphere, dinitrogen and dioxygen, are
transparent to infrared radiation and therefore do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. On the other hand, he
identified water vapour (H 2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as
the two main greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. This led
the way for another chemist, Svante Arrhenius, who, in
1896, was the first to estimate the change in the average
temperature of the Earth’s surface triggered by a change in
the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Lastly, it was
only in the second half of the twentieth century that
advances in measurement techniques made it possible to
measure the impacts of other gases such as methane (CH 4 ),
nitrous oxide (N 2 O), ozone (O 3 ), and chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), on the greenhouse effect.
The direct effect of aerosols on climate was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century to
explain the cold winter of 1783–84. Benjamin Franklin
noted there was a “constant fog over all Europe, and a great
part of North America” which resulted in colder conditions.
He suggested volcanic eruptions in Iceland as a possible
explanation for this fog. Since then, the big volcanic eruptions that have occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, such as the Krakatoa (1883), Santa Maria (1902),
N. Bouttes (&) Á L. Bopp Á S. Albani Á G. Ramstein Á T. Vadsaria
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement,
LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay,
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: Nathaelle.bouttes@lsce.ipsl.fr
S. Albani
Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences,
University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
T. Vadsaria
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The
University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
E. Capron
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road,
Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK
E. Capron
Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, Niels Bohr Institute,
University of Copenhagen, Juliannes Maries Vej 30,
2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
G. Ramstein et al. (eds.), Paleoclimatology, Frontiers in Earth Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24982-3_23
271