Pollen

       One of the proxies that is used for paleoclimatology is pollen.  Pollen is a good proxy to utilize because it can be found in both ice core samples as well as lake sediments or mud cores.  This is due to the fact that pollen grains can be washed away by rainfall and blown around by wind sending it to various areas.  By doing so this allows there to be a record of the vegetation that was around during a certain time.
     

        Pollen counts can be used in order to see how much of a certain vegetation species was present during the specific year that the sample is taken from in a layer.  Knowing what plants are present will give paleoclimatologists knowledge about not only what species were present, but also predicted temperatures and precipitation for an area.  Certain plants will only grow under certain conditions which is what makes this kinda of proxy work.


      Pollen can be identified in a multitude of ways.  Such ways include shape, divets or cones/spikes, and color.  One such pollen grain that is easily identifiable is pine.  Pine pollen grains are also known as 'The Mickey Mouse Pollen".  This is due to its uncanny resemblance to a Mickey Mouse head.






NOAA. "Fossil and Surface Pollen Data."National Climate Data Center. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 May 2013. <www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pollen.html>.

Wiki. "Paleoclimatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology>.

Paleoclimatology

            Paleoclimatology, in short, is the study of past climates.  According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) it is, “the study of climate prior to the widespread availability of records of temperature, precipitation, and other instrumental data” (NOAA, 2008).  These studies are preformed as a means to help establish a range of prior natural variation in the climate, before there was any recorded human influence.  The last few thousand years is what the NCDC has been particularly interested in.  This is due to the fact that it is the ‘best dated’ and sampled part of the climatic records that we have (NOAA, 2008).

            A variety of ‘proxy’ records are used to estimate past climate condition.  Proxy records are preserved in things such as coral reef skeletons, glacier and ice cap ice cores, lake and ocean sediments, and tree rings (NOAA, 2008).  Other proxy data includes historical, fossil pollens, fire history, and caves (NOAA, 2013).  Historical Data includes logs from farmers and travelers, coral skeletons reveal oxygen and traces of metals, pollen fossils show what kind of plants were growing, tree rings show influence by climate conditions, sediments show different fossils, and ice cores can show different air bubbles (NOAA, 2002).  All of these can show different interpretation of past climates in an area.

Sources:

NOAA. "Paleoclimate Data." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleoclimate-data>.

 NOAA. "What is Paleoclimatology?." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, 20 Aug. 2008. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. <www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/primer.html>.

NOAA. "Paleo Proxy Data." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, 18 July 2002. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. <www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/primer_proxy.html>.  

 

Tree Rings LinkedIn Profile

Why are you special?

I am special because I help to provide history about the landscapes that I reside in.  I can do this regardless of the influencing factors such as weather and temperature.

What special skills and characteristics do you have?

            I grow a new layer, or ring, each year.  It allows me to keep track of how old I am and how good or bad that specific year has been to me.  When I have had a good year, with ample amount of water and sunlight I will have a wider ring.  When it is a bad year though, such as drought, I will have a thinner ring.

Your ideal challenge where you can excel?

A challenge that I can excel in is giving information on past years.  Because I grow a new ring every year you can see how old I am and be able to count back to a specific date.  When you do this you can look at that ring of growth and see how the world treated me at that time.

Where do you like to work?

            I like to work in forested areas.  These areas, though, need to have a distinct change in seasons, or temperature variation throughout the year, that way you can really see how the area is changing climate wise.  If I’m in a tropical area where it is always warm my rings will be pretty consistent and you won’t be able to see if any changes took place.  If I’m somewhere like a New England forest though you will definitely be able to see the changes throughout the different years.

Information was gathered from:

Climate Change class with Dr. Carsten Braun, WSU 2013 as well as:

NOAA. "Paleoclimate Data." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.        <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleoclimate-data>.

NOAA. "Tree Ring." National Climate Data Center. NCDC, 24 May 2012. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html>.

Wiki. "Dendroclimatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendroclimatology>.

Wiki. "Proxy (climate) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_(climate)#Tree)Rings>.