BIOCOD

Quaternary Glacial-Interglacial transitions are key to answer significant challenges pose by anthropogenic climate changes, as they witness important atmospheric concentration CO2 (pCO2) rises (50-100 ppm), in a few thousand years. However, quantitative interpretations of these pCO2 changes are not yet possible as carbon stocks and carbon fluxes related to the major reservoirs of the climate system, remain unknown. Particularly, those involving the biosphere productivity, at the interface between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere, have a major role in the atmospheric pCO2 changes. In this context, BIOCOD aims to quantify biological productivity changes and their impacts on atmospheric pCO2 variations during the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last 800,000 years, through the multiproxy study of sedimentary and glacial cores, and the use of climate models.