Potential problems with the use of gridded climate data in regional quantitative paleoenvironmental studies from data-poor regions

The reliability of quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstructions from lake sediment cores depends in part on the accuracy of the environmental data used in calibration. For paleoclimate reconstructions, gridded datasets provide convenient and consistent modern climate data for calibration. We show, however, that commonly used gridded climate data may have regional biases, which can affect calibration models and the paleoclimate reconstructions derived from them. Although there may be few alternatives to their use, researchers should be aware of potential problems, especially if unusual or counter-intuitive calibration models or reconstructions are obtained.