Collaborative Research: Rapid Climate Change During the Miocene as a benchmark to understand future climate change

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The Miocene Climatic Optimum, between 18 and 13 million years ago, is one of Earth's most recent prolonged warming events with peak global surface temperature about 7 degrees Celsius (13 degrees Fahrenheit) above present and characterized by intervals of abrupt variability. Despite this warmer surface temperature, carbon dioxide concentrations were similar to forecasts of the coming decades while the configuration of continents on the global was quite similar to present-day. Therefore, this period of warmer climate may provide a useful benchmark to understand future climate change. The scientific results of this research will help clarify the impacts of warming on the South American Monsoon System may have on millions of people that presently depend on it for water resources. Through a series of large public lectures, this project will also increase awareness about the power of climate models for informing on future climate and environmental change. Furthermore, the project will provide content for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses and help grow the nascent Department of Geosciences at the University of Connecticut (UConn). With the potential impacts of this new data and the associated educational components, this project stands to significantly benefit society.Although understanding of the climate of this Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO) is well documented through a variety of proxy records, the continental record remains poorly resolved. This data gap hinders our ability to distinguish the temperature responses between land and sea, and thus, limits our ability to use the MCO as an analog for future climate change. This project will therefore analyze the record of paleoclimate from the Central Andes preserved in the geochemistry, palynology, physical sedimentology and paleontology of ancient sand seas and paleo river and lake deposits at key localities in NW Argentina. The research team will combine this effort with a series of Miocene sensitivity experiments with the Community Earth System Model to test if CO2 driven warming is able to produce the geochemical and paleoenvironmental data or if other mechanisms, such as Antarctic ice volume and orbital changes, are required. This multidisciplinary research will provide insights into the causes and responses of rapid climate changes under climate warming.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.