The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene

By C. Waters, J. Zalasiewicz, C. Summerhayes, A. Barnosky, C. Poirier, A. Gałuszka, A. Cearreta, M. Edgeworth, Erle C. Ellis, M. Ellis and 14 more. Science, 2016

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Evidence of an Anthropocene epoch Humans are undoubtedly altering many geological processes on Earth—and have been for some time. But what is the stratigraphic evidence for officially distinguishing this new human-dominated time period, termed the “Anthropocene,” from the preceding Holocene epoch? Waters et al. review climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores. Combined with deposits of new materials and radionuclides, as well as human-caused modification of sedimentary processes, the Anthropocene stands alone stratigraphically as a new epoch beginning sometime in the mid–20th century. Science, this issue p. 10.1126/science.aad2622 BACKGROUND Humans are altering the planet, including long-term global geologic processes, at an increasing rate. Any formal recognition of an Anthropocene epoch in the geological time scale hinges on whether humans have changed the Earth system sufficiently to produce a stratigraphic signature in sediments and ice that is distinct from that of the Holocene epoch. Proposals for marking the start of the Anthropocene include an “early Anthropocene” beginning with the spread of agriculture and deforestation; the Columbian Exchange of Old World and New World species; the Industrial Revolution at ~1800 CE; and the mid-20th century “Great Acceleration” of population growth and industrialization. ADVANCES Recent anthropogenic deposits contain new minerals and rock types, reflecting rapid global dissemination of novel materials including elemental aluminum, concrete, and plastics that form abundant, rapidly evolving “technofossils.” Fossil fuel combustion has disseminated black carbon, inorganic ash spheres, and spherical carbonaceous particles worldwide, with a near-synchronous global increase around 1950. Anthropogenic sedimentary fluxes have intensified, including enhanced erosion caused by deforestation and road construction. Widespread sediment retention behind dams has amplified delta subsidence. Geochemical signatures include elevated levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and pesticide residues, as well as increased 207/206Pb ratios from leaded gasoline, starting between ~1945 and 1950. Soil nitrogen and phosphorus inventories have doubled in the past century because of increased fertilizer use, generating widespread signatures in lake strata and nitrate levels in Greenland ice that are higher than at any time during the previous 100,000 years. Detonation of the Trinity atomic device at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on 16 July 1945 initiated local nuclear fallout from 1945 to 1951, whereas thermonuclear weapons tests generated a clear global signal from 1952 to 1980, the so-called “bomb spike” of excess 14C, 239Pu, and other artificial radionuclides that peaks in 1964. Atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations depart from Holocene and even Quaternary patterns starting at ~1850, and more markedly at ~1950, with an associated steep fall in δ13C that is captured by tree rings and calcareous fossils. An average global temperature increase of 0.6o to 0.9oC from 1900 to the present, occurring predominantly in the past 50 years, is now rising beyond the Holocene variation of the past 1400 years, accompanied by a modest enrichment of δ18O in Greenland ice starting at ~1900. Global sea levels increased at 3.2 ± 0.4 mm/year from 1993 to 2010 and are now rising above Late Holocene rates. Depending on the trajectory of future anthropogenic forcing, these trends may reach or exceed the envelope of Quaternary interglacial conditions. Biologic changes also have been pronounced. Extinction rates have been far above background rates since 1500 and increased further in the 19th century and later; in addition, species assemblages have been altered worldwide by geologically unprecedented transglobal species invasions and changes associated with farming and fishing, permanently reconfiguring Earth’s biological trajectory. OUTLOOK These novel stratigraphic signatures support the formalization of the Anthropocene at the epoch level, with a lower boundary (still to be formally identified) suitably placed in the mid-20th century. Formalization is a complex question because, unlike with prior subdivisions of geological time, the potential utility of a formal Anthropocene reaches well beyond the geological community. It also expresses the extent to which humanity is driving rapid and widespread changes to the Earth system that will variously persist and potentially intensify into the future. Indicators of the Anthropocene in recent lake sediments differ markedly from Holocene signatures. These include unprecedented combinations of plastics, fly ash, radionuclides, metals, pesticides, reactive nitrogen, and consequences of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. In this sediment core from west Greenland (69˚03'N, 49˚54'W), glacier retreat due to climate warming has resulted in an abrupt stratigraphic transition from proglacial sediments to nonglacial organic matter, effectively demarcating the onset of the Anthropocene. [Photo credit: J. P. Briner] Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth. Vigorous debate continues about whether this warrants recognition as a new geologic time unit known as the Anthropocene. We review anthropogenic markers of functional changes in the Earth system through the stratigraphic record. The appearance of manufactured materials in sediments, including aluminum, plastics, and concrete, coincides with global spikes in fallout radionuclides and particulates from fossil fuel combustion. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles have been substantially modified over the past century. Rates of sea-level rise and the extent of human perturbation of the climate system exceed Late Holocene changes. Biotic changes include species invasions worldwide and accelerating rates of extinction. These combined signals render the Anthropocene stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene and earlier epochs.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/93fcc5a105f2d723ba21ab77085eaab60841d73b

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Citations in the corpus

Insect responses to global change offer signposts for biodiversity and conservation (2020, background): “Anthropocene, climate change, habitat loss, insect apocalypse, microclimate, range shifts.”
People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years (2021, background): “1B), contrasts sharply with changes in population and other global changes portrayed as the Great Acceleration of the mid20th century (13).”
Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries (2023, positive): “Human activities have now brought Earth outside of the Holocene ’ s window of environmental variability, giving rise to the proposed Anthropocene epoch ( 4 , 5 ).”
The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead (2018, background): “The recent and global nature of environmental pollution is even reflected by marked differences in Holocene signatures in stratigraphic records showing unprecedented combinations of various anthropogenic substances (66).”
Sustainability guardrails for energy scenarios of the global energy transition (2018, background): “Human activities are the largest drivers at the planetary scale, thus the current geological era has been proposed to be named the “Anthropocene” [5].”
Four priority areas to advance invasion science in the face of rapid environmental change (2020, background): “Here, we consider how invasion science should adapt to the Anthropocene—an era of burgeoning human influence, novel stressors, and rapid environmental change (Steffen et al. 2015; Waters et al. 2016).”
Mapping human pressures on biodiversity across the planet uncovers anthropogenic threat complexes (2020, methodology): “To calculate temperature trends, we used data between 1950, proposed as the start of the Anthropocene (Waters et al., 2016), and 2010.”
Redefining green growth within planetary boundaries (2018, background): “We envision future economies that can thrive within physical planetary boundaries as a natural and necessary development of economic paradigms in the advent of the Anthropocene (Crutzen, 2002; Waters et al., 2016).”
Using industrial ecology and strategic management concepts to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals (2018, background): “…we move further into the 21st century e a period in which human activities are the primary drivers of planetary environmental and climate dynamics (Waters et al., 2016) e it is evident that business leaders cannot operate in isolation, but must alter their view of the ﬁ rm to one in which they…”