Late Quaternary Variations of Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Reconstructed from Polar Ice Cores

Air extracted from polar ice cores offers the unique possibility to reconstruct the past composition of Earth’s atmosphere, and thus to study natural changes in biogeochemical cycles. Here, we present records of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) measured along the EPICA Dome C, EPICA Dronning Maud Land, Talos Dome and NGRIP ice cores. These records allow for the reconstruction of the N2O concentration during the interglacials of the last 800,000 years, while for most glacial time intervals an atmospheric record is missing due to insitu production of N2O in the ice. N2O which has both terrestrial and marine sources, varies in concert with Antarctic temperature during all interglacials back to Marine Isotope Stage 19. However, in contrast to carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), N2O does not show lower concentrations in response to the lower temperature recorded for the interglacials between 800,000 and 440,000 years before present compared to the interglacials of the last 440,000 years. Also, N2O remains substantially longer at interglacial levels than CH4 at the end of most interglacials. On millennial time scales, N2O shows variations in concert with CH4 throughout the last 800,000 years. We suggest that these millennial-scale variations have been driven by a similar mechanism as the Dansgaard/Oeschger events known from the last glacial. We further establish a N2O composite record which covers, without gaps, more than one glacial-interglacial cycle, i.e. it reaches back to the beginning of the penultimate interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5.5) about 140,000 years ago. This composite record reveals substantial N2O variations in response to all Dansgaard/Oeschger events of the last glacial, and a N2O concentration of about 200 parts per billion by volume during the Last Glacial Maximum.