Peppermint investigates climates past and present

Vegetation changes over time and so does the climate just a lot more slowly. So that we can attempt to predict what will happen in the future scientists must understand the past. So, they look to places which will contain elements from the past. Soil and ice preserve both organic and inorganic samples so well scientist are able to use them for climate analysis. Pollen is an excellent example of an organic element which survives and can be used in climate reconstructions. Pollen shows what species were in the surrounding area where the sample was taken, as you go down (or up) the core profile species composition will alter. The level of change varies form place to place, in some the change is rapid i.e. over 100’s of years whilst in others it’s closer to 1000’s or 10,000 years. Ice cores are best for atmospheric analysis, bubbles of gas get trapped in the ice as snow falls, These bubbles contain the gasses in the atmosphere at time of deposition thus, the atmosphere composition and so the climate can be extrapolated.