XVI International Botanical Congess

Paleobotanists correlate Recent vegetation and climate to reconstruct past climate. Paleoclimate modelers simulate past climate with process-based models to decipher the causes of climatic change. Integration of paleobotany and climate modeling is needed to evaluate model output and to provide realistic land-surface conditions for model simulations. Paleobotany can evaluate climate simulations when climate-model output is linked to: 1) statistical models of vegetation and climate, and 2) process-based models of primary productivity/soil decomposition, which simulate changes in physiology and ecology under altered atmospheric CO2. Climate models can incorporate paleobotanical data to determine how evolution of vegetation impacted global climate.