Global Change 2.0: Unlocking the past for a clearer future

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The ACER pollen and charcoal database: a global resource to document vegetation and fire response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period

Publication . Goni, Maria F. Sanchez; Desprat, Stephanie; Daniau, Anne-Laure; Bassinot, Frank C.; Polanco-Martinez, Josue M.; Harrison, Sandy P.; Allen, Judy R. M.; Anderson, R. Scott; Behling, Hermann; Bonnefille, Raymonde; Burjachs, Francesc; Carrion, Jose S.; Cheddadi, Rachid; Clark, James S.; Combourieu-Nebout, Nathalie; Mustaphi, Colin. J. Courtney; Debusk, Georg H.; Dupont, Lydie M.; Finch, Jemma M.; Fletcher, William J.; Giardini, Marco; Gonzalez, Catalina; Gosling, William D.; Grigg, Laurie D.; Grimm, Eric C.; Hayashi, Ryoma; Helmens, Karin; Heusser, Linda E.; Hill, Trevor; Hope, Geoffrey; Huntley, Brian; Igarashi, Yaeko; Irino, Tomohisa; Jacobs, Bonnie; Jimenez-Moreno, Gonzalo; Kawai, Sayuri; Kershaw, A. Peter; Kumon, Fujio; Lawson, Ian T.; Ledru, Marie-Pierre; Lezine, Anne-Marie; Liew, Ping Mei; Magri, Donatella; Marchant, Robert; Margari, Vasiliki; Mayle, Francis E.; McKenzie, G. Merna; Moss, Patrick; Mueller, Stefanie; Mueller, Ulrich C.; Naughton, Filipa; Newnham, Rewi M.; Oba, Tadamichi; Perez-Obiol, Ramon; Pini, Roberta; Ravazzi, Cesare; Roucoux, Katy H.; Rucina, Stephen M.; Scott, Louis; Takahara, Hikaru; Tzedakis, Polichronis C.; Urrego, Dunia H.; van Geel, Bas; Valencia, B. Guido; Vandergoes, Marcus J.; Vincens, Annie; Whitlock, Cathy L.; Willard, Debra A.; Yamamoto, Masanobu

Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles during the last glacial period, which were sufficiently large to have had a potential feedback through changes in albedo and greenhouse gas emissions on climate. Previous reconstructions of vegetation and fire changes during the D-O cycles used independently constructed age models, making it difficult to compare the changes between different sites and regions. Here, we present the ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental Responses) global database, which includes 93 pollen records from the last glacial period (73-15 ka) with a temporal resolution better than 1000 years, 32 of which also provide charcoal records. A harmonized and consistent chronology based on radiometric dating (C-14, U-234/Th-230, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), Ar-40/Ar-39-dated tephra layers) has been constructed for 86 of these records, although in some cases additional information was derived using common control points based on event stratigraphy. The ACER database compiles metadata including geospatial and dating information, pollen and charcoal counts, and pollen percentages of the characteristic biomes and is archived in Microsoft Access (TM) at https://doi. org/10.1594/PANGAEA. 870867.

2017-09Journal article

Open Access

The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems

Publication . Atsawawaranunt, Kamolphat; Comas-Bru, Laia; Amirnezhad Mozhdehi, Sahar; Deininger, Michael; Harrison, Sandy P.; Baker, Andy; Boyd, Meighan; Kaushal, Nikita; Ahmad, Syed Masood; Ait Brahim, Yassine; Arienzo, Monica; Bajo, Petra; Braun, Kerstin; Burstyn, Yuval; Chawchai, Sakonvan; Duan, Wuhui; Hatvani, István Gábor; Hu, Jun; Kern, Zoltán; Labuhn, Inga; Lachniet, Matthew; Lechleiter, Franziska A.; Lorrey, Andrew; Pérez-Mejías, Carlos; Pickering, Robyn; Scroxton, Nick; Veiga-Pires, C.

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (δ18O, δ13C) measurements are referenced by distance from the top or youngest part of the speleothem. Additional tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information, information about the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem and information about the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data.

2018Journal article

Open Access