PAGES - Past Global Changes

VIP WDS-Paleo announcement

Details: Published: Wednesday, 07 February 2018 16:00

Please find below an important announcement from NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information, operator of the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, which archives and distributes data contributed by scientists around the world.

World Data Service for Paleoclimatology: New requirements for contributors

Through the establishment of standard terms to describe proxy and reconstruction data, NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology (WDS-Paleo) is enhancing its capabilities to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable in support of data-intensive science. As such, there will be new terminology requirements for data submissions in 2018.

Important notes for data contributors

Starting on 1 March 2018, contributors will be required to provide metadata for variables (i.e. what was measured or reconstructed) using new standard terms when contributing most data to the WDS-Paleo. Additionally for data synthesis projects, WDS-Paleo will also request that a liaison for the project coordinate their data contribution with our staff in advance of submission.

PAGES launches ECN

Details: Published: Monday, 05 February 2018 15:00

"Developed by early-career researchers, for early-career researchers."

Establishing PAGES Early-Career Network (ECN), which launches today, formally recognizes the important contribution of early-career researchers within PAGES' structure and helps prepare them for the future, says PAGES Executive Director Marie-France Loutre.

"I am extremely delighted to see the launch of the ECN," says Dr. Loutre. "PAGES has always been strongly committed to supporting the participation of early-career researchers (ECRs) in its activities. With the launch of the ECN we go a step further.

"Senior researchers can bring their expertise and experience in the running of our project while ECRs may provide enthusiasm and fresh ideas. ECRs will of course continue to take part in the different working group activities. I hope that the ECN will contribute to develop professional skills and prepare the ECRs to become strong senior leaders of tomorrow."

Two new working groups

Details: Published: Monday, 05 February 2018 14:59

PAGES is pleased to announce the launch of two new working groups today.

Climate Reconstruction and Impacts from the Archives of Societies (CRIAS) aims to improve the use of society's archives - personal documents, narrative sources, archival materials, early instrumental observations, and artefacts such as flood markers - in reconstructing historical climate variability and human impacts. Read more and sign up to their mailing list here.

Cycles of Sea-Ice Dynamics in the Earth system (C-SIDE) aims to reconstruct changes in sea-ice extent in the Southern Ocean for the past 130,000 years, reconstruct how sea-ice cover responded to global cooling as the Earth entered a glacial cycle, and to better understand how sea-ice cover may have influenced nutrient cycling, ocean productivity, air-sea gas exchange, and circulation dynamics. Read more and sign up to their mailing list here.

PALSEA2 French Polynesia paper

Details: Published: Monday, 29 January 2018 18:05

Members of the PALSEA2 working group recently published a paper in Nature Communications on past sea level in French Polynesia, citing the region as ideal for paleo sea-level studies for extracting accurate information on the melting history of ice sheets.

Led by Nadine Hallman, the authors reconstruct a high-resolution sea-level curve encompassing the last 6000 years based on a comprehensive study of coral microatolls, which are sensitive low-tide recorders.

Access the paper, titled "Ice volume and climate changes from a 6000 year sea-level record in French Polynesia", here.

Find out more about the PALSEA2 working group here.

More 2k papers in Clim. of Past

Details: Published: Monday, 29 January 2018 17:19

The PAGES 2k Network special issue of Climate of the Past continues to grow with recent additions covering climate variability in the subarctic and multi-proxy reconstructions of precipitation in China.

Marie Nicolle et al. use statistical and signal analyses from North Atlantic, Siberian and Alaskan regionally averaged records to investiage arctic climate variability for the last two millennia. Read their paper here.

Feng Shi et al. reconstruct the precipitation field for China for the past half millennium using 479 proxy records, including 371 tree-ring width chronologies, a tree-ring isotope chronology, and 107 drought/flood indices. Read their paper here.

Access all accepted papers in the 2k special issue, titled "Climate of the past 2000 years: global and regional syntheses", here.

Land-cover change in East Africa

Details: Published: Wednesday, 24 January 2018 09:42

Members of LandCover6k recently published a paper in Earth-Science Reviews on the cumulative effects of climate and land-use change over millennial timescales in East Africa.

Led by Rob Marchant, the authors explore the different drivers and directions of land-cover change, the associated environmental history and multiple interactions with the distribution of various cultures, technologies, and subsistence strategies through time and across space. They use archaeological and paleoenvironmental data to document change.

PAGES & NeotomaDB agreement

Details: Published: Tuesday, 23 January 2018 17:31

Archiving scientific data in a trusted repository is now becoming a requirement from many funding agencies and publishers are starting to ask that data is made publicly available.

Today, PAGES takes another step towards safe and accessible data stewardship by formally signing an agreement with the Neotoma Paleoecology Database. See their announcement here.

Neotoma joins NOAA/NCEI Paleoclimatology and PANGAEA as recommended data repositories.

Read more about PAGES Data Guidelines here.