Published July 13, 2016 | Version v1
Journal article Open

The PRISM4 (mid-Piacenzian) paleoenvironmental reconstruction

  • 1. United States Geological Survey
  • 2. University of Leeds
  • 3. University of Chicago
  • 4. Syracuse University
  • 5. University of Florida
  • 6. Harvard University
  • 7. Northumbria University
  • 8. Columbia University

Description

The mid-Piacenzian is known as a period of relative warmth when compared to the present day. A comprehensive understanding of conditions during the Piacenzian serves as both a conceptual model and a source for boundary conditions as well as means of verification of global climate model experiments. In this paper we present the PRISM4 reconstruction, a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the mid-Piacenzian ( ∼  3 Ma) containing data for paleogeography, land and sea ice, sea-surface temperature, vegetation, soils, and lakes. Our retrodicted paleogeography takes into account glacial isostatic adjustments and changes in dynamic topography. Soils and lakes, both significant as land surface features, are introduced to the PRISM reconstruction for the first time. Sea-surface temperature and vegetation reconstructions are unchanged but now have confidence assessments. The PRISM4 reconstruction is being used as boundary condition data for the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2 (PlioMIP2) experiments.

Data availability

All elements of the PRISM4 reconstruction are available from the data section of the USGS PRISM web page: http: //geology.er.usgs.gov/egpsc/prism/4_data.html.

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.5194/cp-12-1519-2016
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:13730

Funding

US Geological Survey
Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program
European Research Council
FP7/2007–2013
European Research Council
278636
Natural Environment Research Council
NE/I016287/1
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Earth System Evolution Program
NASA
NNX14AB99A

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Physical Sciences Division
Department(s)
Geophysical Sciences