The ACER pollen and charcoal database: a global resource to document vegetation and fire response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period
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 as...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2017-09-01
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Series: | Earth System Science Data |
Online Access: | https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/9/679/2017/essd-9-679-2017.pdf |
Summary: | 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 (<sup>14</sup>C, <sup>234</sup>U∕<sup>230</sup>Th, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL),
<sup>40</sup>Ar∕<sup>39</sup>Ar-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
<span style="" class="text">Microsoft Access</span><sup>TM</sup> at
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.870867" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.870867</a>. |
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ISSN: | 1866-3508 1866-3516 |