Project Details
Projekt
Comparison of climate and carbon cycle dynamics during late Quaternary interglacials using a spectrum of climate system models, ice-core and terrestrial archives (COIN)
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2007 to 2014
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 42247163
Quaternary interglacials show varying amplitudes and different patterns of changes in climate, vege-tation cover, and atmospheric CO2. This project combines the results of numerical simulations of interglacial environments using a spectrum of Earth-system models with newly generated vegetation and climate data and data syntheses from terrestrial and marine archives. The paleoclimate data are used to determine which aspects of the interglacial climate the model simulations are able to repro-duce and which of the tested forcing mechanisms (greenhouse gases, ice-sheets, vegetation feed-backs, precession and obliquity components of insolation) have driven climate change of past warm intervals. The importance of feedbacks between land cover and climate is being addressed by ana-lysing multi-millennial simulations of a coarse-resolution EMIC, CLIMBER2-LPJ, and compared with time-slice simulations of the high-resolution model CCSM 3. The main focus of this final phase of the project is on data-model comparison for early interglacials across the Mid-Brunhes Event. To this end we will engage in post-processing of climate simulations and establishment of new reconstructions based on long pollen records from Lake Baikal, pollen and diatom records from Lake Suigetsu and a synthesis of existing terrestrial and marine climate records of early and late interglacials (100-650 ka). The data-model comparison is structured along seven key hypotheses allowing us to carry out a focused quantitative assessment of Quaternary interglacials with the overarching aim to improve our understanding of the climate system so as to better constrain the Earth-system models used for future climate projections.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Participating Person
Professor Dr. Michael Schulz
