I. CiMBIO Project Outline

The Circum-Mediterranean Biomes Initiative is an international consortium of ecologists, palaeoecologists, palaeoclimatologists and earth system modellers. The aim of the consortium is to improve our understanding of Late Quaternary vegetation changes in the circum-Mediterrean region using a combination of climate/vegetation modelling and palaeoenvironmental data synthesis.

Currently-available vegetation models characterise Mediterranean-type vegetation rather simply. For example, the equilibrium vegetation model BIOME1 (Prentice et al., 1992) discriminates warm and/or cold steppe, xerophytic woodlands and/or scrublands, semi-desert, warm-temperate evergreen forests/woodlands. It is possible to produce models with more discriminatory power, provided that the general climatic or biogeochemical constraints on specific types of vegetation can be specified.

1) The first goal of the CiMBIO is to develop a model capable of capturing the diversity of Mediterranean vegetation types, and suitable for investigating the impact of past and future climate changes on the vegetation of this region.

The robustness of the model when forced to simulate radically different climates will be tested by running palaeoclimate simulations, driven by output from a variety of different climate models for 6000 yr B.P. and the Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 yr B.P.). In order to validate the simulated vegetation patterns, it will be necessary to produce maps of the observed vegetation patterns across the Mediterranean region at these times. The BIOME 6000 project (Prentice and Webb, 1998) has developed objective methods for reconstructing vegetation patterns from pollen and/or plant macrofossil data (a procedure known as biomisation). The procedure can be modified in order to reconstruct biomes at higher levels of discrimination, for e.g. to match the level of biome discrimination used by a specific model.

2) A second goal of the CiMBIO will be to modify the biomisation scheme in order to produce maps of observed biomes using the same vegetation classification scheme as is used for the simulated biomes in the improved vegetation model.

Once developed, the biomisation procedure can readily be applied to other time periods. It thus provides a tool to map the changing patterns of vegetation through time. Analyses of these patterns, and in particular comparison of these patterns with the vegetation changes simulated as a consequence of changes in external climate forcing factors (e.g. insolation, glacial extent, atmospheric composition …..), provides a way of understanding the causes of Late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the Mediterranean region. We plan to use output from coupled ocean-atmosphere (AOGCM) simulations for multiple time slices during the Holocene, the deglaciation and the LGM to drive the improved vegetation model, and to compare these simulated vegetation patterns with reconstructions of the observed patterns.

3) Therefore, a third goal of the CiMBIO will be to reconstruct maps of observed biomes on a quasi-continuous basis from the LGM to present. The Holocene simulations will be available first, and therefore the CiMBIO will focus first on the reconstruction of Holocene vegetation patterns.

Preliminary TimeTable

Compilation of pollen test data set: data for modern, 6000 yr B.P. and Last Glacial Maximum (April-December 1999)
Development of prototype plant functional type and biome classifications to be used in modelling and biomisation exercises (May-December 1999)
WORKSHOP: CiMBIO Members to discuss the prototype modelling and biomisation schemes, and to test them in the light of the test data sets (spring 2000)
Continued elaboration of the model and biomisation methodology, and publication of the test case (spring/summer2000).
Application of the new BIOME model with Holocene climate simulations (spring 2000)
Compilation and biomisation of pollen data sets for the Holocene (spring/summer 2000)

Current Members of the Circum-Mediterranean Biomes Initiative:

Accorsi, Carla Alberta , Università di Modena, Orto Botanico, Modena, Italy
Atherden, Margaret A. , The University College of Ripon and York St John, York, UK
Belmonte i Soler, Jordina Unitat de Botànica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, BELLATERRA, Spain
Beug, Hans-Jürgen, Palynologie und Quartärwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen, Wilhelm-Weber-Strasse 2, D-37073 Göttingen
Bottema, Sytze, Department of Archaeology, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, The Netherlands
Bozilova, Elizsaveta, Biological Faculty, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Brun, Annik , Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Préhistoire, 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
Carrion, Jose , Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidad de Murcia, Spain

Chiapusso, María José Iriarte, Laboratoria de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Lugo, Spain
de Beaulieu, Jacques-Louis , Lab. de Botanique Historique et Palynologie, MARSEILLE, France
Eastwood, Warren , School of Geography & Environmental Sciences, Univer. of Birmingham,Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
Fidalgo, Luisa Santos , Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña
Gennett, Judith , Bryan, USA
Gómez-Orellana, Luis, Laboratoria de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Lugo, Spain
Harrison, Sandy, University of Bristol, UK
Jahns, Susanne, Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum, Wünsdorf, Germany
Jalut, Guy, Univ. Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire d'Ecologie Terrestre, Toulouse,France
Kutzbach, John , University of Madison, USA
Lamb, Henry F. , Inst. of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, U.K.
Lopez Saez, Jose Antonio, Laboratorio de Arquebotanica, Madrid, Spain
Muñoz-Sobrino, Castor, Laboratoria de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Lugo, Spain
Obiol, Ramon Perez , Depart. de Biol. Animal, de Biol. Vegetal i Ecologia, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Pichard, Sylvie, Lab. de Botanique Historique et Palynologie, Marseille, France
Pickett, Elizabeth J , Department of Geography, The Univ. of Western Australia, Nedlands 6907
Prentice, Colin, University of Bristol, UK
Ramil-Rego, Pablo , Laboratoria de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Lugo, Spain
Rodríguez, Pedro Fernández , Laboratoria de Botánica, Universidade de Santiago, Lugo, Spain
Sánchez Goñi, María Fernanda, Département de Géologie et Océanographie, Université de Bordeaux I, France
Schlüter, Ann-Dorothee, Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Stevenson, Tony, Department of Geography, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Robert S. Thompson, Team Chief Scientist, Earth Surface Processes, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver
Tonkov, Spassimir, Biological Faculty, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Van der Knaap, Pim, Syst. -Geobot. Inst. Univ. Bern, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
van Klinken, Geert Jacob , Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Willis, Kathy , School of Geography, University of Oxford, OX1 3TB, UK

For more information, please contact:
Sandy P. Harrison
School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
University Road
Bristol BS8 1SS
email: sandy.harrison@bristol.ac.uk

III. CiMBIO Data Access and Archiving Policy

CiMBIO will archive data centrally with the aim of making these data available to project members during the course of the project. The data become available for other purposes within the project when the paper in which they are included is "in press". When the data are published, they will be made available to the international community (via archiving with a public access data base e.g. at NOAA-NGDC)

CiMBIO data consists of primary data (e.g. pollen counts, vegetation model code) and accompanying meta-data (e.g. location information, site description, dating information), secondary derived data (e.g. pft scores, biome scores, biomes reconstructions at individual sites, simulated pft abundance, simulated biome) and tertiary data (e.g. regional maps of observed and simulated vegetation patterns). All of these data will therefore be archived.

All data contributors are co-authors of the publication in which these data are first used.

Data contributors become full members of CiMBIO, and can therefore participate fully in the intellectual life of the project.