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H2020Staff exchange2016–2019

QUEST · QUantitative paleoEnvironments from SpeleoThems

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-01-01 → 2019-12-31
EU contribution
€144,000
Participants
5
Scheme
MSCA-RISE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

QUantitative paleoEnvironments from SpeleoThems

Speleothems are unique terrestrial archives that allow for highly resolved and long climate reconstructions. These are vital for understanding climate change and environmental responses at all timescales. Current studies can only make qualitative inferences about climate parameters – i.e. they can tell us the direction of change, but not the amount of change. Quantification is vital to make palaeo-data more useful to modellers & policy makers. QUEST (QUantitative palaeoEnvironments from SpeleoThems) developed new techniques for quantifying past changes and linked field and laboratory experiments on water/mineral chemistry with innovative physical and numerical analyses. The combination of these techniques, based on physical and chemical properties and statistical methods, helps deliver (semi-)quantitative records of key environmental parameters. We test our methods using samples from Australasia and other regions affected by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO governs Pacific circulation and affects global weather systems. Understanding ENSO dynamics is vital to assess risks posed by near-future ENSO changes. Our team came from a variety of backgrounds including environmental chemistry, mineral magnetism, or numerical data analysis. Each group develops new methods within their own subfield, but this project combined and applied them collectively to speleothems. Our interdisciplinarity, state-of-the-art instrumentation, and novel techniques placed us ideally to develop quantitative climate records. The QUEST project has now ended, but collaborations continue. We have a number of papers in review or near submission, and our PhD students are still active in field and laboratories. This project has been a great opportunity for the team to exchange ideas, interact in different work environments, and to build unique synergistic links that now allow for innovative proposals and follow-up projects. Involved Early Scientific Researchers reported outstanding experiences, and we are confident that the QUEST project supported their careers in fruitful ways. QUEST continues its research into Pacific climate, and development of quantitative methods.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Speleothems (cave deposits, e.g. stalagmites) represent unique terrestrial archives that allow for accurately dated, high-resolution (often annual), continuous and long (many millennia) climate reconstructions. Such records are vital for understanding how climate varies and how our environments respond on seasonal to millennial timescales. However, current speleothem studies can only make qualitative inferences about climate parameters – i.e. they can tell us the direction of change (warmer, drier, etc.) but not the amount of change (how warm? how dry?). Quantitative information is crucial to make speleothem-based data more useful to climate modellers and policy makers.QUEST (QUantitative palaeoEnvironments from SpeleoThems) will develop new techniques for extracting quantitative information from speleothems and link field and laboratory experiments on water/mineral chemistry with innovative physical and numerical analyses on speleothems. The combination of these techniques, based on physical and chemical properties and statistical methods, will allow us to deliver quantitative reconstructions of two key parameters: hydrology and temperature. We will test our methods using speleothems from Australasia, a region vulnerable to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability. At present, there is a relative dearth of millennial-scale palaeoclimate data from this region.Our team members come from a variety of backgrounds including environmental chemistry, environmental mineral magnetism, and numerical data analysis. Each group within the team has already begun developing innovative methods for palaeoclimate reconstruction within their own subfield, but this project will be the first time these methods are combined and applied collectively to speleothems. Our combination of interdisciplinary expertise, state-of-the-art instrumentation, and novel techniques means that we are ideally placed to develop quantitative climate records from speleothems.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGECoordinatorUnited Kingdom
  • JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ · MainzGermany
  • POTSDAM-INSTITUT FUR KLIMAFOLGENFORSCHUNG EV · PotsdamGermany
  • RUHR-UNIVERSITAET BOCHUM · BochumGermany
  • UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO · HAMILTONNew Zealand

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union