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High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects
Citation
Jones, PD and Briffa, KR and Osborn, TJ and Lough, JM and van Ommen, TD and Vinther, BM and Luterbacher, J and Wahl, ER and Zwiers, FW and Mann, ME and Schmidt, GA and Ammann, CM and Buckley, BM and Cobb, KM and Esper, J and Goosse, H and Graham, N and Jansen, E and Kiefer, T and Kull, C and Kuttel, M and Mosley-Thompson, E and Overpeck, JT and Riedwyl, N and Schulz, M and Tudhope, AW and Villalba, R and Wanner, H and Wolff, E and Xoplaki, E, High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects, The Holocene, 19, (1) pp. 3-49. ISSN 0959-6836 (2009) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2009 Sage Publications
DOI: doi:10.1177/0959683608098952
Abstract
This review of late-Holocene palaeoclimatology represents the results from a PAGES/CLIVAR Intersection Panel meeting that took place in June 2006. The review is in three parts: the principal high-resolution proxy disciplines (trees, corals, ice cores and documentary evidence), emphasizing current issues in their use for climate reconstruction; the various approaches that have been adopted to combine multiple climate proxy records to provide estimates of past annual-to-decadal timescale Northern Hemisphere surface temperatures and other climate variables, such as large-scale circulation indices; and the forcing histories used in climate model simulations of the past millennium. We discuss the need to develop a framework through which current and new approaches to interpreting these proxy data may be rigorously assessed using pseudo-proxies derived from climate model runs, where the `answer' is known. The article concludes with a list of recommendations. First, more raw proxy data are required from the diverse disciplines and from more locations, as well as replication, for all proxy sources, of the basic raw measurements to improve absolute dating, and to better distinguish the proxy climate signal from noise. Second, more effort is required to improve the understanding of what individual proxies respond to, supported by more site measurements and process studies. These activities should also be mindful of the correlation structure of instrumental data, indicating which adjacent proxy records ought to be in agreement and which not. Third, large-scale climate reconstructions should be attempted using a wide variety of techniques, emphasizing those for which quantified errors can be estimated at specified timescales. Fourth, a greater use of climate model simulations is needed to guide the choice of reconstruction techniques (the pseudo-proxy concept) and possibly help determine where, given limited resources, future sampling should be concentrated.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Palaeoclimatology, late-Holocene, CLIVAR, proxy disciplines, climate reconstruction |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Physical geography and environmental geoscience |
| Research Field: | Palaeoclimatology |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences |
| UTAS Author: | van Ommen, TD (Dr Tas van Ommen) |
| ID Code: | 97707 |
| Year Published: | 2009 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 488 |
| Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
| Deposited On: | 2015-01-09 |
| Last Modified: | 2015-02-10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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