February 21-23, 2018, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Andria Dawson, Basil Davis, and Simon Goring
Fossil pollen preserved in lake and bog sediments provides proxy data that can be used to reconstruct Quaternary climate. Quantitative climate reconstructions from pollen data were pioneered over 70 years ago (Iversen 1944). Since then many alternative methods have been developed, but with little coordination. The objective of this meeting is to bring together a group of experts to perform a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the numerical methods currently used to reconstruct climate from pollen.
The broader goal is to provide the scientific community with a resource that provides ‘benchmarks’ for pollen-climate reconstruction methods under different conditions, and a framework for testing new methods as they are developed.
Specific goals of the meeting are to:
- Identify key questions with regards to numerical methods that can be effectively tested (no-analogue environments, non-stationary vegetation-climate relationships)
- identify test data sets suitable for the conditions
- determine appropriate metrics for comparison of reconstructions
- identify key numerical methods and a framework for their implementation
- conceive and begin to implement a workflow
This meeting follows from an earlier meeting in Caux, Switzerland organized by Basil Davis and funded through PAGES. That meeting sought to provide guidance with regards to key publications for various pollen-based climate reconstruction methods, general assessments of limitations and strengths of each method, and guidelines for model implementation. This workshop aims to supplement the Caux report with a quantitative basis for evaluating model intercomparisons.