Title: Integrating Geological Archives and Climate Models to Understand the Pliocene and Inform the Future

Authors: Ran Feng¹, Alan Haywood², Heather Ford³, Harry Dowsett⁴, Erin McClymont⁵

Affiliations: 
¹ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, US
² School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
³ School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
⁴ Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA, US
⁵ Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK

Email address: ran.feng@uconn.edu 

Abstract: The Pliocene Epoch (∼5.3–2.6 Ma) was the most recent geologic interval with CO2 levels similar to present-day. Consequently, this interval has been widely studied to understand how the earth system operates in a warm climate and to what extent climate models can simulate past warm intervals. During the past few years, three community-wide projects, called PRISM4, PlioVAR, and PlioMIP2, have studied Pliocene climate. These projects targeted the mid-Piacenzian time interval (3.205 Ma) for data synthesis and experimental design. The proxy and model data generated from these projects fueled a wide range of research on Pliocene climate, covering topics such as the global mean and spatial patterns of temperature, state and drivers of the hydrological cycle, ocean circulation and heat transport, high latitude climate and ice sheet extents, and sensitivity to CO2 forcing, among others.

Looking ahead, in addition to the standard mid-Piacenzian experiments, PlioMIP3 will incorporate an early-Pliocene experiment and an experiment featuring minimal land-sea configuration changes. Furthermore, new sensitivity experiments have been designed to explore uncertainties in orbital and greenhouse gas forcings, East Antarctic Ice Sheet topography, and vegetation coverage. In parallel, two early Pliocene time slices (4.474 and 4.870 Ma) have been identified for proxy data syntheses. Together, these ongoing projects will facilitate the next round of studies on Pliocene climate evolution, which will provide valuable insights into future climate change.

Biography: Ran Feng received a BS in atmospheric sciences from Nanjing University and a MS in meteorology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Following an interest in Earth history, she went on to obtain a PhD in paleoclimate modeling from the University of Michigan. She was introduced to the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project as a postdoc working with Dr. Bette Otto-Bliesner at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and has since focused her career on investigating the mid-Pliocene and other warm intervals of the Cenozoic. Ran is currently an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, a recipient of the US National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, and a steering committee member of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project.