The QUEST Deglaciation (Q-D) project will evaluate the performance of a new fast earth-system model in simulating major late-Quaternary environmental changes (21-0 ka BP). Part of the evaluation requires comparison of simulated and reconstructed vegetation patterns. Q-D focuses on the climatically sensitive northern extra tropics (NET). The new model will provide continuous simulations of vegetation from 21ka to present and requires a pollen database to match.
Extant pollen databases only store time slices (0, 6 & 21ka) or continuous records with uncalibrated radiocarbon dates. Further, there are significant spatial gaps in existing publicly available data sources covering the NET, particularly in the Former Soviet Union (FSU). Further data are available but are only published in Russian and/or not electronically archived; they risk being lost to the wider scientific community.
The aim of this workshop is obtain well-dated continuous pollen records from the FSU during the critical interval 21-kyr to present. The records will be added to our existing pollen database. The workshop follows on from a successful Eurasian macrofossil workshop held in March 2007 (partly funded by PAGES).
The reconstructed vegetation will be at a temporal and spatial resolution suitable for comparison with the QUEST-Deglaciation GCMs.
Contact: Heather Binney