CHILL - 10'000: Climate history as recorded by ecologically sensitive arctic and alpine lakes during the last 10'000 years - a multi proxy approach

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 97.0117

Key words (English)

Paleoclimate; climate; reconstruction; ecotones; tree line

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: ENV4-CT97-0642

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 3.1 Environment

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: University of Helsinki (FIN)

Abstract (English)

LAKE SEDIMENTS REPRESENT ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHIVES THAT CONTINUOUSLY RECORD INFORMATION ON PAST CONDITIONS IN THE AQUATIC SYSTEM, THE TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM IN THE CATCHMENT, AS WELL AS IN THE ATMOSPHERE. EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS WITH STEEP CLIMATIC GRADIENTS, ESPECIALLY IN REGIONS NEAR MAJOR ECOTONES (E.G. TREE-LINE) ARE EXCELLENTLY SUITED FOR STUDIES OF LONG-TERM CLIMATE CHANGE BECAUSE MINOR CLIMATIC SHIFTS ARE EXPECTED TO GENERATE LARGE CHANGES IN BIOTA. MOREOVER, THE SEDIMENT RECORD OF REMOTE ALPINE OR ACTIC LAKES IS ONE OF THE FEW SYSTEMS WHERE A CONTINUOUS, SENSITIVE, HIGH-RESOLUTION CONTINENTAL RECORD OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY, UNINFLUENCED BY HUMAN IMPACT THROUGHOUT THE HOLOCENE, CAN BE FOUND.
THE PROJECT AIMS AT MODELLING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KEY AQUATIC AND TERRESTRIAL ORGANISMS AND CLIMATE FOR DIFFERENT REGIONS IN EUROPE USING QUALITY-CONTROLLED REGIONAL DATA-SETS OF BIOLOGICAL AND GEOCHEMICAL SEDIMENTARY DATA AND APPROPRIATE MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES. APPLICATION OF ORGANISM-SPECIFIC QUANTITATIVE INFERENCE MODELS TO HOLOCENE SEDIMENT BIOSTRATIGRAPHIES IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE HIGH-RESOLUTION AND WELL-DATED CLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LAST 10,000 YEARS, WHICH CAN BE USED FOR VALIDATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF CLIMATE MODELS. AS THESE STUDIES ARE CARRIED OUT IN DIFFERENT ALPINE AND ARCTIC REGIONS WE MAY EVENTUALLY EXPLORE FORCING FACTORS AS WELL AS SPATIO-TEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CHANGING HOLOCENE VARIABILITY OF CLIMATE IN EUROPE.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 97.0117