PlioMioVAR - Pliocene and Miocene climate variability over glacial-interglacial timescales
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2024 |
Jan 2025 |
Pliocene and Miocene climate variability over glacial-interglacial timescales
Photo: Ras il-Pellegrin outcrop Malta [Mid-Miocene (13.82 Ma)] from Ray Zammit
The Pliocene (~2.6-5.3 myr) and the Miocene (~5.3-23 myr), are globally warm climate states with atmospheric CO2 concentrations estimated to be similar and/or higher than today. The Pliocene and Miocene are characterized by higher global mean surface temperatures (~2-3 ºC), reduced ice volume, and reduced ocean and atmospheric strength in comparison to pre-industrial.
The mid-Pliocene warm period (MPWP) has long been a data-model comparison target for the paleoclimatology community (USGS PRISM datasets, PlioMIP, PlioVAR). And though CO2 during the MPWP is estimated to be similar to today, there is increasing need to expand into the early Pliocene and Miocene for higher CO2 and globally warm equilibrium climate states for data-model comparisons to understand future climate change (i.e. mid-Miocene Climate Optimum). The Pliocene and Miocene were discussed in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 6th Assessment Report, Working Group 1 as informing our understanding of warm climate states and therefore continue to be important data-model comparison targets in constraining future climate change.
To address this need, PlioMioVAR aims to expand the stratigraphical framework of PlioVAR to include low and high-resolution stratigraphy datasets for a variety of proxies: sea surface temperature, productivity, benthic stable isotopes, etc for the early Pliocene through Miocene.
This group is open to anyone who is interested, and early-career researchers are encouraged to be involved:
- Subscribe to the PlioMioVAR mailing list here (Note: you must be signed in via the eduroam network to join the mailing list - read more about PAGES working group mailing lists here)
- Contact a member of the Steering group here
The overall goal of PlioMioVAR is to co-ordinate a synthesis of terrestrial and marine data to characterise spatial and temporal variability of Pliocene and Miocene climate. Our programme builds on key priorities identified by the community in the PAGES PlioVAR working group (2015-2018) and includes the nascent Miocene community (Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology 2019 Special Issue - The Miocene: The Future of the Past). This is an opportunity to share best practices in community-wide engagement, database building and data-model comparison. The PlioMioVAR effort will be punctuated by a series of workshops as described below.
August 2022 - The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities brought together > 50 in-person (Leeds, United Kingdom) and > 30 virtual participants to present research and plan Pliocene data-model comparison goals.
January 2023 - MioOcean held a virtual workshop with 50+ participants with proxy and age model groups providing presentations with updates on their compilation efforts.
Spring 2023 - A series of hackathons planned to continue the Miocene compilation and analysis efforts.
June 2023 - PAGES PlioMioVar Workshop: MioOcean Temperature Synthesis Meeting 2.
Summer 2023 - A series of hackathons planned to provide quality assurance on benthic foraminifera records.
Future planned meetings will bring the data and modelling communities together to synthesize Pliocene and Miocene Climate. This will serve as an opportunity for future manuscript outlining and production.
Products: active data-base detailing multi-proxy records of Pliocene and Miocene climate; publications detailing syntheses and data-model comparisons for the mid-Pliocene and and Mid-Miocene Climate Optimum (PMIP targets for IPCC).
The Steering Committee will co-ordinate and support the development of the database, maintain communication with all members of the Working Group, and monitor progress against each of our objectives and liaise and co-ordinate with the ongoing PlioMIP and MioMIP Projects.
Coordinators
Steering committee
Heather Ford (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
Sindia Sosdian (Cardiff University, UK)
Erin McClymont (Durham University, UK)
ECR Sevi Modestou (Northumbria University, UK)
Natalie Burls (George Mason University, USA - MioMIP Steering Committee Representative/Leader)
Aisling Dolan (Leeds University, UK - PlioMIP Steering Committee Representative)
Ling Ho (National Taiwan University, Taiwan)