Tropical Arctic

Tropical Arctic PDF

Author: Jennifer C. McElwain

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-11-05

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 022653457X

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An illustrated visit to the tropical arctic of 205 million years ago when Greenland was green. While today’s Greenland is largely covered in ice, in the time of the dinosaurs the area was a lushly forested, tropical zone. Tropical Arctic tracks a ten-million-year window of Earth’s history when global temperatures soared and the vegetation of the world responded. A project over eighteen years in the making, Tropical Arctic is the result of a unique collaboration between two paleobotanists, Jennifer C. McElwain and Ian J. Glasspool, and award-winning scientific illustrator Marlene Hill Donnelly. They began with a simple question: “What was the color of a fossilized leaf?” Tropical Arctic answers that question and more, allowing readers to experience Triassic Greenland through three reconstructed landscapes and an expertly researched catalog of extinct plants. A stunning compilation of paint and pencil art, photos, maps, and engineered fossil models, Tropical Arctic blends art and science to bring a lost world to life. Readers will also enjoy a front-row seat to the scientific adventures of life in the field, with engaging anecdotes about analyzing fossils and learning to ward off polar bear attacks. Tropical Arctic explains our planet’s story of environmental upheaval, mass extinction, and resilience. By looking at Earth’s past, we see a glimpse of the future of our warming planet—and learn an important lesson for our time of climate change.

The Polar and Tropical Worlds

The Polar and Tropical Worlds PDF

Author: Georg Hartwig

Publisher:

Published: 1874

Total Pages: 826

ISBN-13:

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A combination of the author's Polar World (1869) and his Tropical World. The first part includes new information on the acquisition of Alaska and on C.F. Hall's expedition, 1860-62. (AB 6732).

Linkages Between Arctic Warming and Mid-Latitude Weather Patterns

Linkages Between Arctic Warming and Mid-Latitude Weather Patterns PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2014-05-29

Total Pages: 85

ISBN-13: 0309301912

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The Arctic has been undergoing significant changes in recent years. Average temperatures are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. The extent and thickness of sea ice is rapidly declining. Such changes may have an impact on atmospheric conditions outside the region. Several hypotheses for how Arctic warming may be influencing mid-latitude weather patterns have been proposed recently. For example, Arctic warming could lead to a weakened jet stream resulting in more persistent weather patterns in the mid-latitudes. Or Arctic sea ice loss could lead to an increase of snow on high-latitude land, which in turn impacts the jet stream resulting in cold Eurasian and North American winters. These and other potential connections between a warming Arctic and mid-latitude weather are the subject of active research. Linkages Between Arctic Warming and Mid-Latitude Weather Patterns is the summary of a workshop convened in September 2013 by the National Research Council to review our current understanding and to discuss research needed to better understand proposed linkages. A diverse array of experts examined linkages between a warming Arctic and mid-latitude weather patterns. The workshop included presentations from leading researchers representing a range of views on this topic. The workshop was organized to allow participants to take a global perspective and consider the influence of the Arctic in the context of forcing from other components of the climate system, such as changes in the tropics, ocean circulation, and mid-latitude sea surface temperature. This report discusses our current understanding of the mechanisms that link declines in Arctic sea ice cover, loss of high-latitude snow cover, changes in Arctic-region energy fluxes, atmospheric circulation patterns, and the occurrence of extreme weather events; possible implications of more severe loss of summer Arctic sea ice upon weather patterns at lower latitudes; major gaps in our understanding, and observational and/or modeling efforts that are needed to fill those gaps; and current opportunities and limitations for using Arctic sea ice predictions to assess the risk of temperature/precipitation anomalies and extreme weather events over northern continents.

Arctic Life of Birds and Mammals

Arctic Life of Birds and Mammals PDF

Author: L. Irving

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 3642856551

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After travel through Alaska during the Second World War, in 1947 I went to Barrow with a very lively group of biologists. From their productive research developed the Arctic Research Laboratory. While we examined the rather surpris ingly modest metabolic rates of arctic warmblooded animals in cold, PER SCHO LANDER proposed and then carried out measurements of metabolism of some tropi cal animals in Panama. The differences could be formulated to show the basis of adaptation to arctic cold and to tropical warmth. Imagination and logic were required to formulate the comparison so that it could become a part of science, but the essential measurements were derived from animals and plants in their own arctic and tropical environments. Characteristics that adapt the forms of life to climatic conditions of various environments appear clear in the large dimensions of extremely differing climates. At the time of my arrival in Alaska many of the arctic Eskimos were still largely dependent on natural resources of their immediate and local environment, in which great seasonal changes in temperature and solar radiation appeared as dominant factors. The living environment on which they subsisted was also mar kedly affected by the changes of the seasons, in particular by the change in state of water to ice that terminated summer and by the melting that brought the late transition from winter to summer.

Threats to the Arctic

Threats to the Arctic PDF

Author: Scott Elias

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2021-06-18

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13: 0128232293

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Threats to the Arctic discusses all the current threats to this fragile region, emphasizing the interconnections between many environmental impacts, as well as the teleconnections between events already emerging in the Arctic (ocean circulation changes, melting of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets) and other parts of the world. The book's aim is to inform readers about the impending, sometimes irreversible changes coming to the Arctic. University students, environmental engineers, policymakers and sociologists with an interest in the role of the Arctic in global change will benefit from the book's unique perspective. As this remote, inhospitable part of the world that few people will ever visit provides amazing insights, we can no longer have an 'out of sight – out of mind’ approach to the environmental upheavals taking place in the Arctic. Provides the most up-to-date information on this rapidly changing, critical part of the world Offers a holistic understanding of the interconnections between global environmental changes and impacts in the Arctic Examines fact-based pressure on politics and industry to preserve Arctic biota and environments

Future Arctic

Future Arctic PDF

Author: Edward Struzik

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2015-02-03

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1610914406

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In one hundred years, or even fifty, the Arctic will look dramatically different than it does today. As polar ice retreats and animals and plants migrate northward, the arctic landscape is morphing into something new and very different from what it once was. While these changes may seem remote, they will have a profound impact on a host of global issues, from international politics to animal migrations. In Future Arctic, journalist and explorer Edward Struzik offers a clear-eyed look at the rapidly shifting dynamics in the Arctic region, a harbinger of changes that will reverberate throughout our entire world. Future Arctic reveals the inside story of how politics and climate change are altering the polar world in a way that will have profound effects on economics, culture, and the environment as we know it. Struzik takes readers up mountains and cliffs, and along for the ride on snowmobiles and helicopters, sailboats and icebreakers. His travel companions, from wildlife scientists to military strategists to indigenous peoples, share diverse insights into the science, culture and geopolitical tensions of this captivating place. With their help, Struzik begins piecing together an environmental puzzle: How might the land’s most iconic species—caribou, polar bears, narwhal—survive? Where will migrating birds flock to? How will ocean currents shift? And what fundamental changes will oil and gas exploration have on economies and ecosystems? How will vast unclaimed regions of the Arctic be divided? A unique combination of extensive on-the-ground research, compelling storytelling, and policy analysis, Future Arctic offers a new look at the changes occurring in this remote, mysterious region and their far-reaching effects.