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‘CLAMP Online’: a new web-based palaeoclimate tool and its application to the terrestrial Paleogene and Neogene of North America

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Abstract

CLAMP Online is a new form-driven web facility enabling Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) palaeoclimate determinations to be conducted in their entirety without the need for additional software. This facility is demonstrated using physiognomic data from 82 Eocene to Pliocene fossil sites in North America, the Physg3brc CLAMP calibration file, and both locally derived climate data (Met3br) and 0.5° × 0.5° gridded climate data (GRIDMet3br). All the fossil sites fall within the physiognomic space defined by the Physg3brc dataset showing the versatility of this calibration for Paleogene to Present sites in North America. The fossil sites also plot in the mesic part of physiognomic space confirming that the source of the fossil material was vegetation growing under conditions where water was not growth-limiting to any significant degree. Regression equations are derived relating the local to the gridded climate predictions showing the relative predictive capabilities of each dataset, as well as offering ways to convert previously published data between the two calibrations. Palaeoclimate data (mean annual, warm month mean and cold month mean temperatures, growing season length, growing season and mean monthly growing season precipitation, precipitation during the three consecutive wettest and three consecutive driest months, and annual averages for relative and specific humidities and enthalpy) are given for all 82 sites.

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Acknowledgements

We are of course indebted to the late Jack Wolfe for bequeathing R.A. Spicer the data and grateful for the constructive comments and criticism offered by Dieter Uhl and Elizabeth Kennedy during the preparation of this work for publication. R.A. Spicer was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists at the Institute of Botany (2009S1-20) . This research was also supported by the International S & T Cooperation Project of China No. 2009DFA32210.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxicun, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, China

    Jian Yang, Teresa E. V. Spicer & Cheng-Sen Li

  2. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Robert A. Spicer

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  1. Jian Yang
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Correspondence to Jian Yang.

Electronic supplementary materials

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material, which includes the complete results files generated by the CLAMP Online analyses for both the gridded and local climate data.

ESM 1

(ZIP 575 kb)

ESM 2

(ZIP 578 kb)

ESM Fig. 1

(JPEG 79.5 KB)

High resolution image file (TIFF 978 KB)

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Yang, J., Spicer, R.A., Spicer, T.E.V. et al. ‘CLAMP Online’: a new web-based palaeoclimate tool and its application to the terrestrial Paleogene and Neogene of North America. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 91, 163–183 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-011-0056-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-011-0056-2

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