Special Exhibitions

How do scientists study the climate of the past? And how can this knowledge help us better understand our climate future? The new special exhibition “Building Climate Knowledge – What the Past Knows About the Future” at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt explores these questions.

From October 21, 2022, to July 16, 2023, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum will present a special exhibition on paleoclimate research

Climate researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research are collaborating within the VeWA* research consortium to investigate two geological periods—the Late Cretaceous and the Eocene—that occurred millions of years ago. Both periods were characterized by high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and high temperatures. The scientists’ goal is to reconstruct the climatic processes of these past natural warm periods in order to more accurately predict future developments.

To do this, researchers analyze what are known as climate archives: fossilized remains of animals and plants, as well as deposits in ice or rock. These contain information about past climates. For example, the research team is studying the tooth enamel of a prehistoric horse from the Messel Pit in Hesse, as well as tiny calcareous algae measuring just a few micrometers in size. The varying compositions of chemical elements in these archives can provide insights into the climatic conditions of that time.

Researchers use these methods to study the factors that influenced the climate, such as the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or the distribution of vegetation on Earth. However, they cannot measure these values directly. Therefore, they determine proxy values—such as the composition of certain chemical elements in climate archives. Using this data, they can improve climate models. Climate models simulate the Earth’s climate system. Using mathematical formulas, they describe the processes and interactions between the atmosphere and land with flora and fauna or the oceans.
 
The exhibition vividly illustrates how scientific research works and how reliable climate knowledge is generated—from the initial research question through the research process to a scientific publication, which is then communicated to the public through science communication. The new special exhibition is a highlight of the joint LOEWE research initiative “VeWA – Past Warm Periods as Natural Analogs of Our High-CO2 Climate Future” between Goethe University Frankfurt and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research.

*The VeWA research consortium—Past Warm Periods as Natural Analogs of Our High-CO₂ Climate Future—is a LOEWE priority area of the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art. Here, researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research are studying the climate of past warm periods.
The project coordinators are Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Müller and Prof. Dr. Silke Voigt from Goethe University Frankfurt. Prof. Dr. Andreas Mulch is the contact person for the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research.
The curators of the exhibition are Lisa Voigt and Dr. Andrea Weidt from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt.