Global biome changes over the last 21&thinsp;000 years inferred from model–data comparisons

Li, Chenzhi; Dallmeyer, Anne; Ni, Jian; Chevalier, Manuel; Willeit, Matteo; Andreev, Andrei A.; Cao, Xianyong; Schild, Laura; Heim, Birgit; Wieczorek, Mareike; Herzschuh, Ulrike

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1001-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1001-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Past vegetation dynamics and their role in past climate...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1001-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

Research article

|

11 Jun 2025

Research article |

| 11 Jun 2025

Global biome changes over the last 21 000 years inferred from model–data comparisons

Chenzhi Li, Anne Dallmeyer, Jian Ni, Manuel Chevalier, Matteo Willeit, Andrei A. Andreev, Xianyong Cao, Laura Schild, Birgit Heim, Mareike Wieczorek, and Ulrike Herzschuh

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1001-2025-supplement

Data sets

LegacyPollen2.0: an updated global taxonomically and temporally standardized fossil pollen dataset of 3680 palynological records [dataset bundled publication] C. Li et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.965907

PalMod2 MPI-M MPI-ESM1-2-CR Transient Simulations of the Last Deglaciation with prescribed ice sheets from ICE-6G reconstructions (r1i1p2f2) U. Mikolajewicz et al. https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/PMMXMCRTDIP122

PalMod2 MPI-M MPI-ESM1-2-CR-CH4 transient-deglaciation-prescribed-glac1d-methane T. Kleinen et al. https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/PMMXMCHTD

ISLSCP II Potential Natural Vegetation Cover N. Ramankutty et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/961

Global taxonomically harmonized pollen data set for Late Quaternary with revised chronologies (LegacyPollen 1.0) U. Herzschuh et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.929773

Simulation of the Transient Climate of the Last 21,000 Years (TraCE-21ka) NSF https://www.earthsystemgrid.org/project/trace.html

PMIP$_4$ GLAC-1D ice-sheet data JYPETER https://pmip4.lsce.ipsl.fr/doku.php/data:ice_glac_1d\#download

Model code and software

Biome Chenzhi Li https://github.com/PolarTerrestrialEnvironmentalSystems/Biome

A language and environment for statistical computing R Core Team https://www.r-project.org/

Short summary

We present global megabiome dynamics and distributions derived from pollen-based reconstructions over the last 21 000 years, which are suitable for the evaluation of Earth-system-model-based paleo-megabiome simulations. We identified strong deviations between pollen- and model-derived megabiome distributions in the circum-Arctic and Tibetan Plateau areas during the Last Glacial Maximum and early deglaciation and in northern Africa and the Mediterranean region during the Holocene.