People Meetings Members' area

QUEST Theme 2 Palaeodata synthesis

The natural regulation of atmospheric composition on glacial-interglacial and longer time scales

Theme 2 of QUEST includes three projects, PalaeoQUMP, QUEST-Deglaciation and Quaternary-QUEST. They share the strategy of extensive syntheses of various environmental data that are used to reconstruct global changes during the late Quaternary and to evaluate the causes of the changes, such as the glacial-interglacial CO2 changes, and the links between climate and the changes in atmospheric CO2 composition. Improved chronologies of wiggle-matched radiocarbon dates and tephrochronology will be introduced to selected data sets. The compiled data will be available as databases, and the reconstructions enable comparisons with Earth system model simulations and constructing new improved models.

Data syntheses

PalaeoQUMP

• Modern pollen data
• Time slices, the Last Glacial Maximum and mid-Holocene (6000 BP)



QUEST-Deglaciation

• Global charcoal distribution
• Global wetland extent
• Macrofossil synthesis north from 40 degrees N
• Pollen synthesis north from 40 degrees N
• Carbon isotope composion of tropical plants
• Time scale, from the Last Glacial Maximum, 21 000 BP



Quaternary-QUEST

• Ocean isotopes time series
• Marine biological time series
• Terrestrial biological time series
• Inorganic carbon in oceans
• Dust deposition
• Time scale, ~130,000 BP (Marine Isotope Stages 1-5)