Late Glacial and Postglacial Environmental Changes

Late Glacial and Postglacial Environmental Changes PDF

Author: Ireneo Peter Martini

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13:

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This book of contributed papers reconstructs events following the major Paleozoic glaciation, using as analog events during the last 18,000 years. The detailed analysis of present environments aids in understanding what triggered the ancient deglaciations; conversely, the study of the ancient geological record helps to identify factors that influence global environmental change. The syntheses and analyses of Quaternary and older glacial products and events foster a better understanding of those periods in which rapid climatic and environmental changes occurred, and they constitute a ready source of information for analyzing other ancient geological records or constructing models for possible future changes.

Environmental Change

Environmental Change PDF

Author: Andrew Goudie

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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We are in the grip of global warming, we are told: sea-levels are rising, glaciers are melting, meteorological events are becoming more extreme. But are these differences really a deviation from the norm, or are they merely part of an ongoing cycle of change? How can they be put into perspective?

Global Environments Through the Quaternary

Global Environments Through the Quaternary PDF

Author: David E. Anderson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-01-25

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0198742266

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Global Environments through the Quaternary delves into the environmental changes that have taken place during the Quaternary: the two to three million years during which man has inhabited the Earth. It is essential reading for any students seeking a balanced, objective overview of this truly interdisciplinary subject.

Late Pleistocene and Holocene Environmental Change on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington

Late Pleistocene and Holocene Environmental Change on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington PDF

Author: Daniel G. Gavin

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-25

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 3319110144

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This study brings together decades of research on the modern natural environment of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, reviews past research on paleoenvironmental change since the Late Pleistocene, and finally presents paleoecological records of changing forest composition and fire over the last 14,000 years. The focus of this study is on the authors’ studies of five pollen records from the Olympic Peninsula. Maps and other data graphics are used extensively. Paleoecology can effectively address some of these challenges we face in understanding the biotic response to climate change and other agents of change in ecosystems. First, species responses to climate change are mediated by changing disturbance regimes. Second, biotic hotspots today suggest a long-term maintenance of diversity in an area, and researchers approach the maintenance of diversity from a wide range and angles (CITE). Mountain regions may maintain biodiversity through significant climate change in ‘refugia’: locations where components of diversity retreat to and expand from during periods of unfavorable climate (Keppel et al., 2012). Paleoecological studies can describe the context for which biodiversity persisted through time climate refugia. Third, the paleoecological approach is especially suited for long-lived organisms. For example, a tree species that may typically reach reproductive sizes only after 50 years and remain fertile for 300 years, will experience only 30 to 200 generations since colonizing a location after Holocene warming about 11,000 years ago. Thus, by summarizing community change through multiple generations and natural disturbance events, paleoecological studies can examine the resilience of ecosystems to disturbances in the past, showing how many ecosystems recover quickly while others may not (Willis et al., 2010).

Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present

Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present PDF

Author: J. Maizels

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 9401131503

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3 new biota and extinction of others, and extensive soil erosion reaching almost catastrophic proportions have led to desertification of many upland areas and abandonment by local populations. The role of climatic change as opposed to deforestation and sheep grazing in creating these new environments has proved a further issue of great controversy. While our understanding of historic environmental changes remains inadequate, our knowledge of processes that are modifying the present-day landscape is also sparse and selective. Little is known of active periglacial processes, slope instabilities, and rates of soil erosion by slope wash and aeolian transport. Coastal processes of erosion and beach formation have been studied only locally. Most of our information on recent or active processes comprises records of glacier fluctuations, volcanic eruptions and jOkulhlaup events, but sti11little is known of the mechanisms and processes of landscape change effected by these events. This volume of papers, based on a conference sponsored by the Quaternary Research Association and the Geologists Association and held at the University of Aberdeen in April 1989, addresses many of these crucial uncertainties regarding environmental changes in Iceland from the Lateglacial onwards. The papers make a major contribution to dispelling many earlier uncertainties and clarifying areas of controversy. Many of the papers challenge traditional and poorly supported ideas, replacing them with hypotheses based on new data and new insights derived from the expansion of wider scientific expertise and theory. The volume focuses on three major areas of research in particular.

Global Environments through the Quaternary

Global Environments through the Quaternary PDF

Author: David Anderson

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2013-02-07

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 0199697264

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Global Environments through the Quaternary delves into the environmental changes that have taken place during the Quaternary: the two to three million years during which man has inhabited the Earth. It is essential reading for any students seeking a balanced, objective overview of this truly interdisciplinary subject.

The Great Ice Age

The Great Ice Age PDF

Author: R. C. L. Wilson

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780415198417

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The Great Ice Age documents and explains the natural climatic and palaeoecologic changes that have occurred during the past 2.6 million years, outlining the emergence and global impact of our species during this period. Exploring a wide range of records of climate change, the authors demonstrate the interconnectivity of the components of the Earths climate system, show how the evidence for such change is obtained, and explain some of the problems in collecting and dating proxy climate data. One of the most dramatic aspects of humanity's rise is that it coincided with the beginnings of major environmental changes and a mass extinction that has the pace, and maybe magnitude, of those in the far-off past that stemmed from climate, geological and occasionally extraterrestrial events. This book reveals that anthropogenic effects on the world are not merely modern matters but date back perhaps a million years or more.

Lake and Fjord Sediments as Late Glacial to Holocene Environmental and Climate Archives of the Southernmost Andes at 53°S, Chile

Lake and Fjord Sediments as Late Glacial to Holocene Environmental and Climate Archives of the Southernmost Andes at 53°S, Chile PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Environmental and climatic changes during the last 20,000 years were investigated along an east-west transect across the southernmost Andes (53°S) within the interdisciplinary project "Late and Post Glacial Environmental Conditions in the Range of the Southern Hemispheric Westerlies". Twelve coring locations in the different geographical, geological and vegetational zones of the transect, were selected as drill sites on the basis of parametric echo sounding sediment profiles in the fjords of the Gran Campo Nevado area. The stratigraphy of the sediment cores is based on 14C-AMS ages and tephrachronology. Sedimentological and geochemical characteristics were investigated in order to determine sediment sources and their pathways as well as climate and environmental changes. The ice retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is marked in a sediment core from the eastern section of the proglacial lake Seno Skyring by an ice rafted debris layer (IRD), which was formed at around 18,700 to 17,800 cal. years B.P. This indicates a rapid response of the Seno Skyring glaciers to warming of the southeast Pacific soon after the LGM. However, between around 16,000 and 13,000 cal. years B.P. this core still shows relatively high amounts of Andean-derived glacial clay, characterized by high-MgO andesitic composition with low SiO2/Al2O3 ratios. This suggests a still extended glaciation of the Andes and a slowdown of the ice retreat. Further towards the Andes a core from an ancient glacial valley (Estero Vogel) contains an IRD layer formed at around 13,600 cal. years B.P, indicating a still extended glaciation at that time. Moreover, subaquatic ridges located in an echo sounding profile of Estero Vogel are interpreted as a moraine system, which can be related to a moraine system identified in the middle section of the Gajardo Channel. These moraines may be coeval with the moraine E system in the Strait of Magellan dated 15,043±607 to 12,275±201 cal. years B.P. by Clapperton et al.).