Paleoclimatology

The Study of Ancient Climates

How do we reconstruct climate?
- - - -Proxy Data - - -
We weren’t there to know for sure, but we have good evidence to
suggest what the climate was like in the past.

• Tree Rings
• Pollen samples found in packrat dens and lake bed samples.
• Glacial Ice Cores
• Ocean Sediments - The ratio of oxygen 16 to oxygen 18 preserved
in the steady rain of dead organisms.
• Radiocarbon dates of organic material
• Variations in desert varnish coatings found on rocks in the arid
southwest
• Variations found in peat bog deposits
• Sedimentary rock records.
Proxy #1: Tree Rings
• One way that trees grow is to
add a layer of new wood
between the old wood and the
bark
–Each layer of new
wood forms a
recognizable ring
What we know about tree rings
Size = Age
• One ring combination equals
one year of growth
–Large, lighter colored
rings are produced in
the spring and early
summer when water
and sunlight are
abundant
–Smaller, darker
rings are
produced in the
fall as growth
tapers off
 What do we learn?
• By counting rings from the center
of the trunk outward, and
studying the width of the rings,
we can learn:
–When we had wet and dry years
–When years were unusually cold or
hot
–When natural disasters such as fires
occurred
Proxy #2: Pollen
• All flowering plants produce pollen
grains.
• Each kind of pollen has a distinct
shape so we can identify the type of
plant.
• Pollen grains are preserved in
sediment layers in the bottom of
ponds, lakes and oceans.
Lake Core Sampling
Lake Core Sampling
Lake Core Sampling

POLLEN

DIATOMS
 Pollen Samples

WARM
CLIMATE
Oak Pollen Grass Pollen

COOL
CLIMATE
Spruce Pollen Alder Pollen
 Pollen

• Analyzing the pollen grains in each

sediment layer tells us what kinds of
plants were growing.
• The kind of plant is a clue to what the
climate was like.
Proxy #3: Ice Cores

Time Machines
Into the Past

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es2105/es2105page01.cfm?chapter_no=21,
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_IceCores/ and other sources
 The Ice Core Record
• Ice sheets contain a record of
hundreds of thousands of years of
past climate, trapped in the
ancient snow.

http://tvl1.geo.uc.edu/ice/Image/pretty/green.html
 Scientists
recover this
climate
history by
drilling
cores in the
ice.

© Reto Stöckli, NASA GSFC

Vostok Station, Antarctica
Antarctic Vostok Ice Core
• Longest Drilling Station
continuous
climate record
• Up to 3,500
meters (11,000
feet) deep.
• 440,000 years
Preparing a core for transport.
Ice Cores Prepared for
Transportation
Staff unpack a 13-inch ice core to
prepare it for examination
A small sample cut from the larger ice
core is prepared for analysis.

Ice Core Working Group

• Ice accumulates year after year in
distinctive layers
• Light and dark bands distinguish
between winter and summer snowfall
 What Can Ice Tell Us?
• Changes in Temperature
–oxygen isotopes trapped in air
bubbles in the ice.
• Changes in atmospheric gases
–Scientists can determine the amount of
trace gases that were in the air during
different time periods by analyzing gas
bubbles trapped in ice cores.
• Changes in atmospheric gases
–The graph shows changes in carbon
dioxide levels over the last 400,000 years
–Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas
 What Can Ice Tell Us?
• What inferences can we make based
on the data?