Objective To reconstruct European climate from continental pollen sequencesat selected climatic episodes during the last two climaticcycles, to validate GCM simulations of climate and deriveddistribution of biomes for these climatic episodes, and toevaluate impacts on climate of vegetation changes.The largest available amount of pollen, insects, and lake-levelsproxy data pointing to the absence of those arboreal species thatare today not indigeneous in Europe, i.e. data subsequent toabout 250 Ka BP, will be collected mainly from Greece, Italy,France, and the British Isles. They will enable the definitionof the spatial and temporal variability of the records of the bestcharacterized episodes, particularly changeover episodes. The reconstructions of vegetations and corresponding climateswill be carried out thanks to an extension of the European PollenDatabase and to an enlargement of the bases of climatereconstructions : they will consist, on the one hand, of thecomparison between results obtained by the nearest analoguesmethod and those derived from the technique of response surfaces,and on the other hand, in the constraint of reconstructions frompollen data by other proxy-data (insects, lake-levels).The validation of GCM results will be made by comparing thereconstructed vegetation and climate distributions derived eitherdirectly from palaeodata or from the global biomes model forcedby the GCM outputs. In particular the simulated water-balanceand the biome maps based on GCM experiments for each time periodwill be compared with the entirely independent reconstructions of lakelevels and vegetation for the corresponding period.In order to obtain a fully realistic simulation of past (orfuture) climate, the interaction of vegetation and climate willbe approached by coupling a process-based biome model (developedat Lund) with the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique GCMs.This experiment will comprise three simulations : A simulationof the present climate with the present vegetation introduced inthe inputs, a simulation of the climate of a past period with thepresent vegetation, and a simulation of that same period butwith the introduction of the vegetation obtained using the biome modelbased on the climatic results of the second simulation.Comparisons and experiments will concern only two or threechangeover points that are particularly well documented asregards palaeodata, principally the 6 kyr BP episode. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabasesnatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomologynatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesphysical geographyglaciology Programme(s) FP3-ENV 1C - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of the environment, 1990-1994 Topic(s) 0101 - Natural climate change Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Université d'Aix-Marseille III (Université de Droit d'Économie et des Sciences) EU contribution No data Address Avenue de l'Escadrille Normandie-Niémen 13397 Marseille France See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (5) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all LUND UNIVERSITY Sweden EU contribution No data Address 14,Östra Vallgatan 223 62 LUND See on map Total cost No data Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Netherlands EU contribution No data Address 6,Poststraat 9712 ER Groningen See on map Total cost No data THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Trinity Lane, The Old Schools, CB2 1TN CAMBRIDGE See on map Total cost No data THE PROVOST, FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN HEREINAFTER TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Ireland EU contribution No data Address Trinity College 2 DUBLIN See on map Total cost No data University of Durham United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address South Road DH1 3LE Durham See on map Total cost No data
