HR: 0830h
AN: PP21B-1165    [PDF]
TI: The Early Paleogene Greenhouse and PCO2: A Look at the Role and Response of Vegetation
AU: * Shellito, L J
EM: shellito@es.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AU: Sloan, L C
EM: lcsloan@es.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AB: This study uses the NCAR Community Climate Model (v.3.6.6) (CCM) and dynamic vegetation global model (DVGM) to assess potential responses of Early Paleogene (50-60 Ma) flora to changes in pCO2, and to examine the role that this flora may have had in supporting the warm climate of this time period. We compare the vegetation in model output with the invariable Early Eocene land cover used to drive previous global climate model experiments. The invariable land cover was derived from Paleogene fossil flora and may produce inconsistencies between climate and vegetation in a model, especially in lower pCO2 scenarios, where high latitudes become too cool to support Eocene fossil flora. We drive the DVGM with climate data generated from two experiments with the CCM. In one experiment, pCO2 is set at 560 ppm, and the other, at 1120 ppm. We find that the higher pCO2 experiment allows the plant functional types which favor warmer climates to increase their latitudinal range, and thus become more consistent with proxy interpretations of the distribution of flora during this time period.
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 9604 Cenozoic
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting