Climate of the Past www.clim-past.net 1814-9324 1814-9332 5 2 2009 10.5194/cp-5-147-2009 http://www.clim-past.net/5/147/2009/ http://www.clim-past.net/5/147/2009/cp-5-147-2009.html http://www.clim-past.net/5/147/2009/cp-5-147-2009.pdf 147 156 2009-04-09 Climate reconstruction from pollen and &delta;¹³C records using inverse vegetation modeling &ndash; Implication for past and future climates C. Hatté christine.hatte@lsce.ipsl.fr D.-D. Rousseau J. Guiot Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ 1572, Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France Ecole Normale Supérieure, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, UMR CNRS 8539, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris cedex, France Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA CEREGE, CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université UMR 6635, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex, France ECCOREV, CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université FR 3098, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex, France An improved inverse vegetation model has been designed to better specify both temperature and precipitation estimates from vegetation descriptions. It is based on the BIOME4 vegetation model and uses both vegetation &delta;¹³C and biome as constraints. Previous inverse models based on only one of the two proxies were already improvements over standard reconstruction methods such as the modern analog since these did not take into account some external forcings, for example CO₂ concentration. <br><br> This new approach makes it possible to describe a potential "isotopic niche" defined by analogy with the "climatic niche" theory. Boreal and temperate biomes simulated by BIOME4 are considered in this study. We demonstrate the impact of CO₂ concentration on biome existence domains by replacing a "most likely biome" with another with increased CO₂ concentration. 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