TICMY

TICMY : The interglacial CO2 mystery. CO2 plays a crucial role in the climate. However, changes in CO2 concentration during the warm interglacial periods of the last 800,000 years remain unexplained. In particular, the CO2 concentration during the "old" interglacials before the Mid Brunhes Event (MBE, about 430,000 years ago), is lower by about 25 ppm compared to the more recent interglacials. During the ancient interglacials sea level was probably lower and the ice sheets more extensive. These changes likely resulted in reduced coral reef development and expanded permafrost. Furthermore, this would have altered the exchange with marine sediments, modifying the balance carbonate ions, and ultimately the concentration of atmospheric CO2. In this project, we are going to quantify the impact of these three key components of the carbon cycle using the coupled climate-carbon model iLOVECLIM.

1 PhD; 1 M2 student

Funding: ANR JCJ

PI: Nathaelle Bouttes

Time frame: 2024- 2027

BIOCOD

BIOCOD : BIOlogical productivity changes and their leverage on the CarbOn cycle during past Deglaciations. The glacial terminations are characterized by an increase of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration within a few thousand years, yielding important feedbacks on deglacial warming. While the ocean and permafrost reservoirs are suspected to have transferred vast amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere during terminations, quantitative estimates of the global and regional carbon stocks and fluxes associated with biological productivity are missing. This project aims to quantify changes in marine and terrestrial biological productivity and unravel their impacts on glacial/interglacial pCO2 patterns over the last 800 ka combining direct and indirect productivity proxies inferred from natural climate archives together with global climate modelling experiments. Nathaelle Bouttes and Thomas Extier lead the modelling task with the objective to look at local vs global productivity patterns and their impacts on the carbon stocks and fluxes. Δ17O of O2 proxy will be implemented in iLOVECLIM and transient simulations over terminations and sensitivity experiments will be performed.

PhD Héloïse Barathieu

Funding: ANR

PI: Stéphanie Duchamp-Alphonse

Time frame: 2023- 2027

HYDRATE

HYDRATE : evaluate the low latitude HYDrological cycle in numeRicAl climate models by consTraining past ocean salinity changEs. The hydrological cycle plays an important role in the Earth´s climate and is vital for Human populations. The spatial pattern of climatological mean sea surface salinity (SSS) is highly correlated with the long-term mean Evaporation-Precipitation spatial pattern and therefore constitute a particularly sensitive marker of water cycle. In this project, we propose to reconstruct past low latitude hydrological changes by constraining past salinity changes using innovative approaches. The reconstruction of past SSS remains a challenge in paleoclimatology. We propose a combination of different approach based on bio/geochemical analyses in marine sediment cores and integration with numerical models. Results will serve to evaluate numerical climate models used to predict future climate change in the low latitude hydroclimate and its impact.

PhD Héloise Barathieu

Funding: ANR

PI: Thibaut Caley

Time frame: October 2021-December 2025

ARCLIM

The amplified effects of climate change in the Arctic have profound implications for various systems all over the world, including ocean- and atmosphere circulation, future sea level rise, the carbon cycle and resource management. A complete understanding of the physical processes causing Arctic Amplification and its ‘long-term’ global impacts, however, is still lacking. The primary objective of ARCLIM (The Arctic Ocean under Warm Climates) is to improve knowledge of the poorly-constrained interactive feedback processes between the Arctic Ocean, the carbon cycle, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and regional/global climate. To achieve this, ARCLIM will reconstruct and study key components of Arctic climate change (ocean temperature, carbonate chemistry and the freshwater system) in relation to North Atlantic Ocean circulation (deep-water formation and poleward heat transport to the Arctic) during past warm periods that are similar to the ongoing and projected climate change.

Postdoctoral researcher Tristan Karim VADSARIA will implement the seawater neodymium isotope composition in the ocean component of the iLOVECLIM model

Funding: TFS starting grant

PI: Mohamed Ezat

Time frame: March 2021-February 2025

TerraNova

TerraNova is The European Landscape Learning Initiative that trains 15 PhD candidates in landscape histories and futures. TerraNova’s mission is to develop an unprecedented digital atlas of Europe compiled by an interdisciplinary group of researchers that combine human population patterns in the past, plants and disturbances, animal development, and climate change.

Find out more on the TerraNova website.

Two ESRs are using the iLOVECLIM for their research work:

• ESR 7, Anhelina ZAPOLSKA, is using the CARAIB vegetation coupled to iLOVECLIM and standalone to explore natural vegetation shifts in the Holocene. To allow for an improved integration of her model results with pollen data specialists, she makes use of the downscaling capability of iLOVECLIM. She is based at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. More details on her page at TerraNova.
• ESR 9, Frank ARTHUR, is using the iLOVECLIM model with climate downscaling over Europe to investigate the long term climate trends over the past 12 ka. His work concentrate on the different modes of variability and their evolution through time. He is based at the University of Southern Norway in Bø. More details on his page at TerraNova.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial: what does it really tell us about the ice sheet’s future?

During the Eemian (~130,000 years ago), global temperatures were 0.5-1°C higher than at present and global sea level was 6-9 m higher, due – to some extent – to the partial melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This period is often presented as a picture of our future climate, in which similar conditions are expected to prevail. This project will involve a large number of Earth System model experiments, which will be compared to geological data, to clarify what really happened to the Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Eemian. If we can find out what actually triggered the partial melt of the ice sheet during that period, this may tell us something about its future.

PhD Maxence MENTHON is using the iLOVECLIM model for his research

Funding: NWO KLEIN-1

PI: Pepijn Bakker

Time frame: October 2020-September 2024

OXYPRO: Global biological productivity during abrupt climate change

The global biosphere productivity is the largest carbon flux, currently uptaking about half of human-induced emission. Therefore, understanding how the global biosphere productivity would respond to an abrupt climate change is essential to better predict the future changes in the carbon cycle. This project aims to reconstruct the global primary productivity change over the transition over the Heinrich Stadial (HS) to the Dansgaard-Oecheger (DO) event, the naturally occurred abrupt climate changes in the last glacial triggered by abrupt input of glacial meltwater into the North Atlantic Ocean. In this project, a new high-resolution record of triple oxygen isotopes of air O2 and COS concentrations will be produced throughout the HS events 1 to 5 using polar ice cores. In addition, we will implement triple O2 isotopes in the Earth System Model of Intermediate Complexity of iLOVECLIM in order to better estimate global biosphere productivity. This project will be carried out at the section of Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth at Niels Bohr Institute (PICE, University of Copenhagen), with a six-month secondment to the Laboratory for Sciences of Climate and Environment (LSCE, University of Paris Saclay) for collaboration in modelling work.

Funding: H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

PI: Ji-Woong YANG

Time frame: September 2021-August 2023