Paleoenvironmental Perspectives on Climate Change

Understanding the past is the key to anticipate and adapt to the future. This project addresses the third outcome of Earth Sciences Sector's (ESS's) ERCC Program, which is to advise public policy and guide adaptation strategies to the potential impacts of climate changes in Canada.

To achieve this outcome, proxy records of past terrestrial, oceanic and atmospheric conditions preserved in terrestrial and marine sediments, ice cores, and other such natural archives are used. Collectively, these records contain key information on the causes, dynamics (e.g., rates, critical thresholds) and past impacts of climate change in our environment at time scales of human interest. Defining past climate variability is essential to put modern climate change detection in a proper long-term context, and understanding causalities of these changes is equally essential to help anticipate their occurrences and consequences, thus guiding adaptation strategies.

Project Leader: Christian Zdanowicz

Activities:

• National syntheses of environmental change
• Glacial History, Paleo-geography and Paleo-environments of North America
• Extreme changes in Great Lakes paleo-levels in the early Holocene
• Rapid climate changes and extreme events on the Pacific coast
• Ice-core based studies of climate and atmospheric changes
• Sea-ice history of the Northwest Passage