Paleoclimate modelling

The Kimberley is a vast sparsely inhabited region in the north-west of Australia. There is a long history of human occupation of the Kimberley spanning at least the last 50 ka. The rock art record of the Kimberley is one of the most substantial in the world and may contain some of the world’s oldest representations of human artistic expression and culture. These early settlers have experienced large fluctuations in climate since their arrival, varying from very dry and cool conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) through to the warm and moist conditions experienced during the early Holocene. Despite these dramatic fluctuations and often rapid changes in environmental conditions the paleo-environmental record has so far only been able to describe broad patterns of climatic change and there are very few records that chronicle the changes experienced since the period of human settlement in the Kimberley.

Global circulation modelling of the paleoclimate can provide a representation of the climate for different historical periods, which can be useful for understanding the spatial distribution of the climate in these periods. Global circulation models (GCMs), however, have too coarse a spatial resolution to elucidate the fine scale features of the climate and can produce insufficient detail to explain the regional responses to paleo forcing conditions. Regional climate modelling provides an opportunity to improve the spatial resolution of the climate for specific regions like the Kimberley. GCMs have been scarcely used to model the paleoclimate of Australia and the focus has been confined to periods of extreme climatic conditions such as the LGM and mid-Holocene. Furthermore, regional climate models (RCMs) have only been used once to model the paleoclimate in Australia.

These two issues present a simple opportunity, how can RCMs improve our understanding of the paleoclimate since the arrival of humans in the Kimberley.