Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Subfossil pollen and plant macrofossil data derived from 14C-dated sediment profiles can provide quantitative information on glacial and interglacial climates. The data allow climate variables related to growing-season warmth, winter cold, and plant-available moisture to be reconstructed. Continental-scale reconstructions have been made for the mid-Holocene (MH, around 6 ka) and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, around 21 ka), allowing comparison with palaeoclimate simulations currently being carried out as part of the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The synthesis of the available MH and LGM climate reconstructions and their uncertainties, obtained using modern-analogue, regression and model-inversion techniques, is presented for four temperature variables and two moisture variables. Reconstructions of the same variables based on surface-pollen assemblages are shown to be accurate and unbiased. Reconstructed LGM and MH climate anomaly patterns are coherent, consistent between variables, and robust with respect to the choice of technique. They support a conceptual model of the controls of Late Quaternary climate change whereby the first-order effects of orbital variations and greenhouse forcing on the seasonal cycle of temperature are predictably modified by responses of the atmospheric circulation and surface energy balance.
Source: Climate Dynamics
Institutions: University of Oregon, University of Bristol, Macquarie University, University of Wyoming, University of Algarve, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, University of Ottawa, Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement, University of Minnesota, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Chrono-Environnement, Université de Franche-Comté, University of Helsinki, Tallinn University, United States Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geology and Geophysics
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,790
OpenAlex ID: W2139199775