PalaeoQUMP was headed by Prof Sandy Harrison of the University of Bristol, with co-investigators at the University of Southampton and Durham University, as part of QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System). This dataset collection contains data from charcoal records that have been compiled for the Mediterranean, Black Sea-Caspian and Sea corridor region. PalaeoQUMP aimed to constrain climate sensitivity by using a wider range of derived climate observations from the geological past (reconstructions from sediments and geomorphological changes for the Last Glacial Maximum and the mid-Holocene period), to evaluate climate model predictions generated using the same series of simulations as QUMP produced for the modern climate. The mid-Holocene and LGM climate reconstructions have been completed, with input from the PMIP Quantitative Reconstruction working group. Robust patterns evident in the data sets are being used as benchmarks and targets for the IPCC AR5 palaeoclimate simulations. The team has also produced the first coupled model (AOGCM) perturbed physics ensemble simulations of the MH and LGM. However the objective of using this data for an improved understanding of past climate to better constrain climate sensitivity has not yet been fully achieved.

PalaeoQUMP was headed by Prof Sandy Harrison of the University of Bristol, with co-investigators at the University of Southampton and Durham University, as part of QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System). This dataset collection contains data from charcoal records that have been compiled for the Mediterranean, Black Sea-Caspian and Sea corridor region.

The datasets provide neodymium and strontium isotope composition of Pliocene detrital sediments and additional regional core top samples, diatom species counts and biogenic opal content. These data related to Pliocene marine sediments recovered offshore of Adelie Land, East Antarctica from IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) Site 318-U1361. The data reveal dynamic behaviour of the East Antarctic ice sheet in the vicinity of the low-lying Wilkes Subglacial Basin during times of past climatic warmth. Sedimentary sequences deposited between 5.3 and 3.3 million years ago indicate increases in Southern Ocean surface water productivity, associated with elevated circum Antarctic temperatures. The geochemical provenance of detrital material deposited during these warm intervals suggests active erosion of continental bedrock from within the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, an area today buried beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet. This erosion is interpreted to be associated with retreat of the ice sheet margin several hundreds of kilometres inland and concludes that the East Antarctic ice sheet was sensitive to climatic warmth during the Pliocene.