Articles | Volume 22, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5771-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-5771-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Oct 2025
Research article |
| 21 Oct 2025
| 21 Oct 2025
Preservation and degradation of ancient organic matter in mid-Miocene Antarctic permafrost
Department of Arctic Geology, The University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, 9170, Svalbard, Norway
Sebastian Naeher
Department of Soil and Physical Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln, 7647, New Zealand
School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand
Denis Lacelle
Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Canada
Catherine Ginnane
Earth Sciences New Zealand, Lower Hutt, 5010, New Zealand
Warren Dickinson
Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand
Kevin Norton
Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
Jocelyn Turnbull
Earth Sciences New Zealand, Lower Hutt, 5010, New Zealand
CIRES, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
Richard Levy
Earth Sciences New Zealand, Lower Hutt, 5010, New Zealand
Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand
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Biogeosciences, 22, 4187–4201, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4187-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4187-2025, 2025
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The Southern Ocean carbon sink is a balance between two opposing forces: CO2 absorption at mid-latitudes and CO2 outgassing at high latitudes. Radiocarbon analysis can be used to constrain the latter, as upwelling waters outgas old CO2, diluting atmospheric radiocarbon content. We present tree-ring radiocarbon measurements from Aotearoa / New Zealand and Chile. We show that low radiocarbon in Aotearoa / New Zealand’s Motu Ihupuku / Campbell Island is linked to outgassing in the critical Antarctic Southern Zone.
Olga Albot, Joshua Ratcliffe, Richard Levy, Sebastian Naeher, Daniel King, Catherine Ginnane, Jocelyn Turnbull, Mary Jill Ira Banta, Christopher Wood, Jenny Dahl, Jannine Cooper, and Andy Phillips
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Beata Bukosa, Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, Gordon Brailsford, Dan Smale, Elizabeth D. Keller, W. Troy Baisden, Miko U. F. Kirschbaum, Donna L. Giltrap, Lìyǐn Liáng, Stuart Moore, Rowena Moss, Sylvia Nichol, Jocelyn Turnbull, Alex Geddes, Daemon Kennett, Dóra Hidy, Zoltán Barcza, Louis A. Schipper, Aaron M. Wall, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Hitoshi Mukai, and Andrea Brandon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6445–6473, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6445-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6445-2025, 2025
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Peter K. Bijl, Kasia K. Sliwinska, Bella Duncan, Arnaud Huguet, Sebastian Naeher, Ronnakrit Rattanasriampaipong, Claudia Sosa-Montes de Oca, Alexandra Auderset, Melissa Berke, Bum Soo Kim, Nina Davtian, Tom Dunkley Jones, Desmond Eefting, Felix Elling, Lauren O'Connor, Richard D. Pancost, Francien Peterse, Pierrick Fenies, Addison Rice, Appy Sluijs, Devika Varma, Wenjie Xiao, and Yige Zhang
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Georgia R. Grant, Jonny H. T. Williams, Sebastian Naeher, Osamu Seki, Erin L. McClymont, Molly O. Patterson, Alan M. Haywood, Erik Behrens, Masanobu Yamamoto, and Katelyn Johnson
Clim. Past, 19, 1359–1381, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1359-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1359-2023, 2023
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Regional warming will differ from global warming, and climate models perform poorly in the Southern Ocean. We reconstruct sea surface temperatures in the south-west Pacific during the mid-Pliocene, a time 3 million years ago that represents the long-term outcomes of 3 °C warming, which is expected for the future. Comparing these results to climate model simulations, we show that the south-west Pacific region will warm by 1 °C above the global average if atmospheric CO2 remains above 350 ppm.
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The Cryosphere, 16, 2837–2857, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2837-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2837-2022, 2022
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Christopher J. Hollis, Sebastian Naeher, Christopher D. Clowes, B. David A. Naafs, Richard D. Pancost, Kyle W. R. Taylor, Jenny Dahl, Xun Li, G. Todd Ventura, and Richard Sykes
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Molly O. Patterson, Richard H. Levy, Denise K. Kulhanek, Tina van de Flierdt, Huw Horgan, Gavin B. Dunbar, Timothy R. Naish, Jeanine Ash, Alex Pyne, Darcy Mandeno, Paul Winberry, David M. Harwood, Fabio Florindo, Francisco J. Jimenez-Espejo, Andreas Läufer, Kyu-Cheul Yoo, Osamu Seki, Paolo Stocchi, Johann P. Klages, Jae Il Lee, Florence Colleoni, Yusuke Suganuma, Edward Gasson, Christian Ohneiser, José-Abel Flores, David Try, Rachel Kirkman, Daleen Koch, and the SWAIS 2C Science Team
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Regina Gonzalez Moguel, Felix Vogel, Sébastien Ars, Hinrich Schaefer, Jocelyn C. Turnbull, and Peter M. J. Douglas
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Jamey Stutz, Andrew Mackintosh, Kevin Norton, Ross Whitmore, Carlo Baroni, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Richard S. Jones, Greg Balco, Maria Cristina Salvatore, Stefano Casale, Jae Il Lee, Yeong Bae Seong, Robert McKay, Lauren J. Vargo, Daniel Lowry, Perry Spector, Marcus Christl, Susan Ivy Ochs, Luigia Di Nicola, Maria Iarossi, Finlay Stuart, and Tom Woodruff
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Short summary
15 million years ago, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica were dominated by a tundra environment. In contrast, the modern environment is amongst the coldest and driest on Earth. Using a permafrost core, this paper investigates the shift from a tundra- to a bacteria-dominated landscape. By differentiating between ancient and modern organic material, we further our understanding of preservation of ancient organic material and its response and contribution to future climate change.
15 million years ago, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica were dominated by a tundra...
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