Reconstructing and Modeling Past Vegetation and Climate interactions

Convener: In-Won Kim | Co-conveners: Elke ZellerECSECS, Zhenqian WangECSECS, Anne Dallmeyer

Climate strongly influences vegetation dynamics, including growth, mortality, reproduction, and structural shifts in plant communities. Conversely, vegetation changes affect the climate through alterations in surface energy balance, water and carbon cycles, and other biogeochemical processes. Investigating past vegetation enables the integration of paleo-proxy data with observational records within vegetation–climate modeling frameworks, extending analyses across longer timescales and a broader range of climate states. Insights gained from past vegetation-climate interactions can help inform projections of future vegetation–climate dynamics.

This session aims to advance our understanding of vegetation–climate interactions, through proxy-based and modeling approaches focused on past climates. We welcome studies that explore, for example, how vegetation shifts influenced regional to global climate change, the extent to which past vegetation reflected climate conditions, and vegetation responses (e.g., distributions, productivity, biodiversity) to past warm and/or high-CO₂ intervals. We also encourage submissions on broader and interdisciplinary topics relevant to past vegetation–climate dynamics.