Final Report Summary - TGRES (The Greenhouse Earth System)
Before the industrial revolution, it contained only 280 ppm. During the last ice age, it contained only about 200 ppm.
To find a natural Earth with 400 ppm, we must travel back 3 million years; and to find a natural Earth with 1000 ppm, we must travel back nearly 50 million years – to the Eocene, a world of giant anaconda and miniature horses, palm trees and baobab thriving on Antarctica; a world with almost no ice on land and sea levels about 70 metres higher.
But what was that world really like and what does it tell us about the future. It was warmer, but how warm? And where? How was the hydrological cycle different – was it wetter or drier? Was rain less frequent but more intense? And what about the complex interlinked biological, chemical and geological cycles that regulate our environment? Did wetlands spew out more methane? Did more nutrients wash to the ocean causing algal blooms and the harmful anoxia that follows?
This has been the focus of TGRES. We developed new tools to investigate these issues by creating a global collection of modern wetland sediments; analyses of these allowed us to better understand how temperature, rainfall and methane cycling are recorded by molecular fossils of plants, bacteria and archaea. These settings are not the only ones of interest, but their ancient equivalents are a vital new archive of past climate information because they will greatly expand our understanding of the terrestrial realm. At the same time, we revisited and updated our past climate models, incorporating new processes and exploring them in greater detail.
Based on these new proxies – these biomolecular tools that represent past environmental conditions – and updated Earth System Models, we have shown that land temperatures during the Eocene (and other greenhouse periods) were markedly higher than they are today, with tropical conditions extending to high latitudes. It also seems that these wetlands were characterized by markedly more intense methane cycling than that of today: as the peat degrades, it released a little bit less carbon dioxide and much more methane, a more potent greenhouse gas. These warmer climates were associated with a dramatically different hydrological cycle, with increased moisture transported to the poles and low- and mid-latitudes characterized by drier conditions punctuated by extreme rainfall event. Our project also explored the wider consequences of these changes – more erosion, more nutrients washed into the ocean, more algal productivity and more anoxia in marginal marine settings.
Collectively, we are generating a new understanding of how the Earth System operates when carbon dioxide concentrations are much higher – and by extension gaining insight into the world we are currently creating.
To find a natural Earth with 400 ppm, we must travel back 3 million years; and to find a natural Earth with 1000 ppm, we must travel back nearly 50 million years – to the Eocene, a world of giant anaconda and miniature horses, palm trees and baobab thriving on Antarctica; a world with almost no ice on land and sea levels about 70 metres higher.
But what was that world really like and what does it tell us about the future. It was warmer, but how warm? And where? How was the hydrological cycle different – was it wetter or drier? Was rain less frequent but more intense? And what about the complex interlinked biological, chemical and geological cycles that regulate our environment? Did wetlands spew out more methane? Did more nutrients wash to the ocean causing algal blooms and the harmful anoxia that follows?
This has been the focus of TGRES. We developed new tools to investigate these issues by creating a global collection of modern wetland sediments; analyses of these allowed us to better understand how temperature, rainfall and methane cycling are recorded by molecular fossils of plants, bacteria and archaea. These settings are not the only ones of interest, but their ancient equivalents are a vital new archive of past climate information because they will greatly expand our understanding of the terrestrial realm. At the same time, we revisited and updated our past climate models, incorporating new processes and exploring them in greater detail.
Based on these new proxies – these biomolecular tools that represent past environmental conditions – and updated Earth System Models, we have shown that land temperatures during the Eocene (and other greenhouse periods) were markedly higher than they are today, with tropical conditions extending to high latitudes. It also seems that these wetlands were characterized by markedly more intense methane cycling than that of today: as the peat degrades, it released a little bit less carbon dioxide and much more methane, a more potent greenhouse gas. These warmer climates were associated with a dramatically different hydrological cycle, with increased moisture transported to the poles and low- and mid-latitudes characterized by drier conditions punctuated by extreme rainfall event. Our project also explored the wider consequences of these changes – more erosion, more nutrients washed into the ocean, more algal productivity and more anoxia in marginal marine settings.
Collectively, we are generating a new understanding of how the Earth System operates when carbon dioxide concentrations are much higher – and by extension gaining insight into the world we are currently creating.