Variations in natural climate over the past 130 KA along a W-E European transect as a basis for upgrading GCM's

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: EV5V0273

Start date 1 October 1993

End date 31 December 1995

Funded under

• Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of the environment, 1990-1994

Total cost € 0,00

EU contribution No data

Coordinated by

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM - VERENIGING VOOR CHRISTELIJK WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERWIJS
Netherlands

Objective

To supply (semi--)quantitative palaeoclimatic data derived from
palaeoenvironmental studies for use in climate modelling, and
to compare the palaeoclimatic data with results from climate
models.


The detailed reconstruction of the climatic evolution for the
last 130 kyr involves the derivation of mean annual temperature,
summer and winter temperature, mean annual precipitation,
seasonal distribution of precipitation, and wind direction. The
reconstruction follows a west-east transect with Ireland as an
oceanic extreme on the one hand, and Poland as a continental
extreme on the other hand.

Palaeoclimatic parameters will be investigated by specific
methods and derived from different depositional environments.
Such a multidisciplinary approach will focus on palaeoecological,
palaeohydrological and sedimentological evidence. Palaeoclimatic
information will be obtained from the palaeovegetation and from
selected geochemical, malacological, sedimentological and oxygen
isotope data in lacustrine, aeolian and fluvial sequences. A
special emphasis will be put on the study of insects, specific
relic periglacial features and micromorphological features.

Absolute dating of both the deduced climatic record and climatic
changes will be achieved not only by a great amount of conventional
C-14 analyses in well-suited environments but also by U--Th, AMS
C--14, TL and OSL dating in specific conditions.

All new and other available data are put in a data bank. After
transformation of the local proxy-data into climatic data, point
information will be transposed into areal distribution values for
each time-slice. A regional palaeoclimate and related circulation
patterns will be derived. In the next step these patterns will be
compared with results from simulated general circulation models for
selected time-slices over the last glacial-interglacial cycle.
Finally, the GCM-simulations will be evaluated and possibly
optimized in accordance with the results of the palaeoclimatic
reconstruction.

Fields of science

• natural sciences › earth and related environmental sciences › palaeontology › paleoclimatology
• natural sciences › biological sciences › zoology › entomology

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

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM - VERENIGING VOOR CHRISTELIJK WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERWIJS

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 1085,De Boelelaan 1085 ; 1081 HV AMSTERDAM ; Netherlands
• Total cost: No data

Participants (3)

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College

United Kingdom

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: Egham Hill ; TW20 0EX Egham
• Total cost: No data

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Netherlands

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 318,Kruislaan ; 1098 SM Amsterdam
• Total cost: No data

Universität Leipzig

Germany

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: Talstraße 35 ; 04103 Leipzig
• Total cost: No data