Data stewardship scholarship project
PlioMioVAR was awarded a Data Stewardship Scholarship in May 2023.
Data steward
Dr. Tamara Fletcher (email) (University of Leeds/University of Adelaide)
Goal
During the August 2022 European Geophysical Union Galileo Conference (The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities) with PlioMioVAR and PlioMIP3, we identified the need for a subgroup to work on a separate database of terrestrial climate data.
The terrestrial synthesis currently used for data-model comparison (Salzmann et al. 2013) is now a decade old, only included temperature estimates from vegetation-based methods, and focused on the Late Pliocene.
We wish to update the synthesis and generate a more complete database, which will expand: - the range of proxy-methods included;
- the climate variables reconstructed (including precipitation and seasonal variables); and
- the timespan the database covers (Pliocene and Miocene).
This will increase the data-model comparison possible for PlioMIP base model experiments, facilitate testing the proposed expansion of PlioMIP3 into the Early Pliocene, and support MioMIP2 data-model comparison.
Keeping the marine and terrestrial records in separate databases is necessary due to the very different nature of the records. Terrestrial records have lower age-model accuracy, are shorter in length, and use a variety of terrestrial proxy materials, techniques, and variables reconstructed.
Repository
WDS-Paleo has been identified as a suitable trusted repository for our data, and details have been discussed with our assigned a data management contact, Calie Payne.
Final products
The first aim to produce a long-term, Neogene terrestrial climate database within WDS-paleo that is updatable as new papers are published or sites re-dated. From this database, the group will produce synthesis datasets and articles for each of the Pliocene and Miocene for immediate data-model comparison, highlighting regions or patterns of agreement and disagreement within the proxy records.