ANTARCTICCLIMATE

EVOLUTION(ACE)

An international research initiative to studythe climate and glacial history of Antarctica

through palaeoclimate and ice-sheet modelingintegrated with the geological record.

ANTARCTIC CLIMATE EVOLUTION

Understand scale & rapidity ofice sheet & sea iceresponse to climate forcing

• sea level change

• change in heat sinks/insulators

Modeling ice-sheet behaviour in response tochanges in:

• climate• ice cores• sedimentary facies• seismic data

• palaeooceanographic conditions• palaeoecology• climate proxies in ocean sediments

• palaeogeography• recorded in landscape evolution

Build hypotheses, examinable through modeling,of likely response to future global change

Datasets contributing to ACE programme

History of climate change:Cenozoic stratigraphic record

PROXIMALSEDIMENTARYRECORDS

PROXY-RECORDS

GLACIALEUSTASY

ANTARCTICCRYO-CYCLOSTRATIGRAPHY

Deep Sea OxygenIsotope Record

Low LatitudeSequence

Stratigraphy

LA

TIT

UD

E

HIGH

LOW

SHALDRIL:• Ship-deployed coring - few 100 meter

records from continental shelves• Test cruise planned Feb-March 2005

Planning since 1994

ANDRILL

INVESTIGATING ANTARCTICA

'S R

OLE IN CENOZOIC TO RECENT GLOBAL EN

VIRONMENTAL CHAN

GE

STRATIGRAPHIC D

RILLING for CLIMATIC and TECTONIC

HIS

TORY

McMurdo Sound Portfolio

GERMAN

ITALY NEW

ZEALAND UNITED KING

DOM UNITED STATES

ANDRILL: Stratigraphic records from drilling on sea ice / ice shelf platforms

• Italy• Germany• New Zealand• USA

Drilling:2006 & 2007

Potential ANDRILL Portfolios

AMERY

ICE SHELF

ROSSICE SHELF

WEDDELLSEA MARGIN

ANTARCTICPENINSULA

Initiation of East Antarctic glaciation: coupled GCM-ice sheet model

(from DeConto and Pollard, 2003, Nature)

ACE will:

Promote planning and collaboration for acquisition of data at critical locations indicatedby modeling results

Compile and evaluate geological records ofclimate change across continent

Apply latest numerical modeling schemes toassess response to climate forcings

Publish volumes from theme-based symposiaand workshops

Modeling Themes:• Ice sheet modeling• coupled ice sheet - climate modeling• coupled ice sheet - sediment modeling

Process-Oriented Themes:• Terrestrial landscapes• Tectonics - ice sheets, ocean-floor topography• Climate influence - sedimentary record

Time-based Themes:• Eocene to Holocene target intervals

Critical thresholds:

IPY Contributions:

Theme 2: To quantify, and understand, past and present environmental and human change in thePolar regions in order to improve predictions

• how has planet responded to multiple glacial cycles?• what critical factors triggered the cooling of the

polar regions?

Theme 3: global teleconnections

Theme 4: unknowns at the frontiers of science

New data integrated/understood through modeling

Outreach & Education:

• Web: online lecture series

• Young scientists:• support travel to workshops• organize exchange between institutions

ANTARCTICCLIMATE

EVOLUTION(ACE)

An international research initiative to studythe climate and glacial history of Antarctica

through palaeoclimate and ice-sheet modelingintegrated with the geological record.