The pandemics of the past have also left traces of their passage in the Antarctic ice: the samples extracted on the continent, in fact, which allow us to reconstruct the Earth's climatic history going back in time, show decreases in CO2 in conjunction with the epidemics that broke out following the first contacts between Native Americans and Europeans, during the 16th and 17th centuries.
According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications and led by the British Antarctic Survey, the human population has declined so much as a result of disease that many areas have likely been abandoned, allowing vegetation to regrow and absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Researchers led by Amy King tried to reconcile the conflicting results obtained from two different ice cores extracted in Antarctica: while one shows a sharp decrease in CO2 levels in the atmosphere that occurred over a period of about 90 years, the peak of which low is reached around 1610, the other instead highlights a more gradual decline that extends even further during the 17th century.
To resolve the dispute, the authors of the study examined a third ice core, extracted between 2018 and 2019 in the western part of Antarctica, focusing on the section covering a period of time between 1454 and 1688. The results indicate that the CO2 levels did decline, particularly from 1516 to 1670, but it was a more gradual decline.
“This corroborates scenarios of large-scale reorganization of land use in the Americas – comment the researchers – following contact between the New and Old Worlds”.
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