These regularities are clearly visible in Antarctic ice. Air bubbles once buried in frozen water are like tiny time capsules that store samples of gases that were in the atmosphere thousands or even millions of years ago. Thus, scientists can estimate the carbon dioxide concentration corresponding to specific periods of human civilization.

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Nearly 2,000 years ago, at the dawn of a new age, empires arose, Mount Vesuvius erupted, unknown people wrote scrolls of parchment, and people continued to fight throughout Europe. In the centuries before and after, diseases such as plague and syphilis decimated the human population repeatedly.

The best data from this entire period to date comes from two ice cores that scientists took samples from to model Earth’s climate and carbon cycles over different time periods. They were even given names:

• Law Dome from the Antarctic Ice Cap.
• Ice core of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS)

Scientists say that although there are some differences between them in measuring carbon in the atmosphere, they complement each other well.

For example, the Law Dome core shows a rapid decline in CO levels₂ It reached its minimum for a period of 90 years in 1610 AD. This coincides with the aftermath of initial contact between the Old and New Worlds, where many natives died of diseases believed to have been brought to the Americas by Christopher Columbus, and Europeans met a similar fate after Columbus’s return (although who exactly brought which). diseases are disputed with new evidence).

It is thought that the human population decreased so much during these epidemics that communities probably abandoned earlier settlements, allowing vegetation to re-emerge. These restored forests absorb enormous amounts of CO2₂ This gas from the atmosphere led to a noticeable drop in concentrations in the Law Dome ice core..

But the WAIS core does not show such a sharp decline, instead showing a gradual decrease in CO levels₂It dates back to the 17th century.

To correct for these discrepancies, paleoclimatologist Amy King of the British Antarctic Survey and colleagues measured CO.₂ Skytrain is in the third ice core called Ice Rise. Drilling was conducted at the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in 2018-2019.

King and colleagues analyzed sections of the Skytrain ice core lifted to a depth of 104 meters, which recorded gases dating from AD 1454 to 1688. Their analysis shows that CO level₂ Decline occurred during this period, probably due to significant changes in human population and land vegetation. However, this decline was more gradual than the Law Dome ice core data suggested.

Our analysis confirms a more gradual decline in CO₂ up to 0.5ppm [частин на мільйон] During the ten years from 1516 to 1670 AD,
– King and colleagues add in their paper that there is approximately 2.6 gigatons of CO2₂ it was absorbed over decades as human populations declined and forests grew.

The scientist added that this confirms simulated scenarios of large-scale reorganization of land use in the Americas after contact of the New World with the Old World.

The team then modeled atmospheric carbon flux based on each of the ice cores and possible changes in land vegetation based on rough population estimates. They concluded that the rapid decrease in CO content.₂ The ice core observed at the Dome of Law in 1610 was “incredibly large” and “inconsistent with even the most extreme land use change scenarios.”

Therefore, scientists suggest that there was an unknown climate-carbon feedback event at that time that could explain the minimum amount in the Law Dome record. But even if this does not happen, it is clear that Population decline due to epidemics affected the atmosphere of the entire planet.