Advances in paleoclimatology

Abstract

There is an urgent need for information on the Earth’s climate beyond the limited history provided in the instrumental record. Paleoclimate information provides a baseline for understanding natural climate variability and how human activities have altered the climate. Paleoclimate reconstructions also allow us to estimate the potential impacts of climate change on multiple aspects of the climate system. Over the past three decades, paleoclimatologists have made great advances in using climate proxies, natural archives of climate conditions, to better understand climates of the past. Here, we categorize the main types of advancements made over recent decades, which include the discovery of new proxies and new measurements from existing proxies, the reconstruction of novel components of the climate system, the geographical expansion of paleoclimate records, and the integration of multiple proxies and models. We provide examples of published research in each category from across the field of paleoclimatology, and we end with a summary of remaining knowledge gaps and emerging questions that will require continued paleoclimate research progress in the future.