Science Structure

While PAGES itself is not a research institution, it helps to develop common international science directions to ensure that important scientific questions are addressed in a coherent manner. Based on input from its multidisciplinary community, PAGES works to identify and understand those aspects of past climate and environmental change that are of greatest significance for the future of human societies.

The scope and focus of paleoscience research is continuously evolving; as questions are answered, others are raised. To keep up-to-date with these advances, PAGES revised the scope of its science structure in 2005. It now addresses four Foci and four Cross-Cutting Themes (CCT). Each Focus covers a set of questions that is of prime importance to the global community. The CCTs are more general in their scope and are of fundamental relevance to all Foci and to paleoscience in general.

 

PAGES scientific structure: Four thematic Foci (colored circles) are complemented by four circling Cross-Cutting Themes that are of relevance to all Foci.

Foci and CCT Leaders

All Foci and CCTs are led by one or more members of the SSC, who help organize and promote the collaborations, workshops and syntheses that are required to move each topic forward. If you would like to get involved, please contact the relevant person listed below.

Foci

Focus 1: Climate Forcings
Cathy Whitlock, Eric Wolff, Alan Mix and Hubertus Fischer

Focus 2: Regional Climate Dynamics
Heinz Wanner, José Carriquiry, Fátima Abrantes, Steve Colman, Claudio Latorre and Chris Turney 

Focus 3: Global Earth-System Dynamics
Michael Schulz, Zhongli Ding, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Takeshi Nakatsuka, Eric Wolff and Denis-Didier Rousseau

Focus 4: Human-Climate-Ecosystem Interactions
John Dearing, Mohammed Umer, Cathy Whitlock and Claudio Latorre

Cross-Cutting Themes

CCT 1: Chronology
Pierre Francus, Steve Colman and Chris Turney

CCT 2: Proxy Development, Calibration and Validation
José Carriquiry, Fátima Abrantes and Alan Mix

CCT 3: Modeling
Michael Schulz, Bette Otto-Bliesner and John Dearing

CCT 4: Data Management
Thorsten Kiefer