Download or read book Dynamics of the Pleistocene Climate written by Kirk Allen Maasch and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Antarctic Climate Evolution written by Fabio Florindo and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2008-10-10 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Antarctic Climate Evolution is the first book dedicated to furthering knowledge on the evolution of the world’s largest ice sheet over its ~34 million year history. This volume provides the latest information on subjects ranging from terrestrial and marine geology to sedimentology and glacier geophysics. An overview of Antarctic climate change, analyzing historical, present-day and future developments Contributions from leading experts and scholars from around the world Informs and updates climate change scientists and experts in related areas of study
Download or read book Nonlinear Climate Dynamics written by Henk A. Dijkstra and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces stochastic dynamical systems theory in order to synthesize our current knowledge of climate variability. Nonlinear processes, such as advection, radiation and turbulent mixing, play a central role in climate variability. These processes can give rise to transition phenomena, associated with tipping or bifurcation points, once external conditions are changed. The theory of dynamical systems provides a systematic way to study these transition phenomena. Its stochastic extension also forms the basis of modern (nonlinear) data analysis techniques, predictability studies and data assimilation methods. Early chapters apply the stochastic dynamical systems framework to a hierarchy of climate models to synthesize current knowledge of climate variability. Later chapters analyse phenomena such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, El Niño/Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, Dansgaard–Oeschger events, Pleistocene ice ages and climate predictability. This book will prove invaluable for graduate students and researchers in climate dynamics, physical oceanography, meteorology and paleoclimatology.
Download or read book Species Diversity of Animals in Japan written by Masaharu Motokawa and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-26 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the status quo of the knowledge about the biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine animals that live in Japan. Consisting of some 6,800 islands that are arrayed for approximately 3,500 km from north to south, the Japanese archipelago has a complex history in a paleogeographic formation process over time and harbors rich flora and fauna. This work will contribute to establishing a general biogeographic theory in archipelagoes around continental shelves. Facing the ongoing extinction crisis, one of the most important tasks for our generation is to bequeath this precious natural heritage to future generations. As the first step toward this goal, a species list has been compiled through solid, steady alpha-taxonomic work in each taxon. Furthermore, the phylogeography and population genetic structure for each species is elucidated for deeper understanding of the local fauna, the scientific results of which should be the basis for establishing conservation policies and strategies. Also the problem of alien or introduced species is investigated as another threat to the native fauna.Each of the 27 chapters is written by the most active specialist leading the field, thus readers can acquire up-to-date knowledge of the animal species diversity and their formation process of Japanese animals in the most comprehensive form available. This book is recommended for researchers and students who are interested in species diversity, biogeography, and phylogeography.
Download or read book Paleoclimate and Evolution with Emphasis on Human Origins written by Elisabeth S. Vrba and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the relationship between climatic and biotic evolution, this work focuses on how climatic change during the last 15 million years - especially the last three million - has affected human evolution and other evolutionary events.
Download or read book Xenotransplantation and Risk written by Sara Fovargue and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-17 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some developing biotechnologies challenge accepted legal and ethical norms because of the risks they pose. Xenotransplantation (cross-species transplantation) may prolong life but may also harm the xeno-recipient and the public due to its potential to transmit infectious diseases. These trans-boundary diseases emphasise the global nature of advances in health care and highlight the difficulties of identifying, monitoring and regulating such risks and thereby protecting individual and public health. Xenotransplantation raises questions about how uncertainty and risk are understood and accepted, and exposes tensions between private benefit and public health. Where public health is at risk, a precautionary approach informed by the harm principle supports prioritising the latter, but the issues raised by genetically engineered solid organ xenotransplants have not, as yet, been sufficiently discussed. This must occur prior to their clinical introduction because of the necessary changes to accepted norms which are needed to appropriately safeguard individual and public health.
Download or read book Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics written by David G. Anderson and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle Holocene epoch (8,000 to 3,000 years ago) was a time of dramatic changes in the physical world and in human cultures. Across this span, climatic conditions changed rapidly, with cooling in the high to mid-latitudes and drying in the tropics. In many parts of the world, human groups became more complex, with early horticultural systems replaced by intensive agriculture and small-scale societies being replaced by larger, more hierarchial organizations. Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics explores the cause and effect relationship between climatic change and cultural transformations across the mid-Holocene (c. 4000 B.C.). Explores the role of climatic change on the development of society around the world Chapters detail diverse geographical regions Co-written by noted archaeologists and paleoclimatologists for non-specialists
Download or read book Quaternary Environmental Change in the Tropics written by Sarah E. Metcalfe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global climate changes that led to the expansion and contraction of high latitude ice sheets during the Quaternary period were associated with equally dramatic changes in tropical environments. These included shifts in vegetation zones, changes in the hydrology and ecology of lakes and rivers, and fluctuations in the size of mountain glaciers and sandy deserts. Until recently it was thought that such changes were triggered by fluctuations in the distribution of polar ice cover. Now there is increasing recognition that the tropics themselves have acted as drivers of global climate change over a range of timescales. The aim of Quaternary Environmental Change in the Tropics is to provide a synthesis of the changes that occurred in tropical terrestrial and marine systems during the Pleistocene and Holocene, complementing data-derived reconstructions with output from state-of-the-art climate models. It is targeted at final-year undergraduate students and research specialists, but will provide an introduction to tropical Quaternary research for a variety of other readers.
Download or read book Ocean and Land Climate Dynamics Off Southeast Africa During the Late Pleistocene written by Margit Hildegard Simon and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Understanding Earth s Deep Past written by National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on the Importance of Deep-Time Geologic Records for Understanding Climate Change Impacts and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is little dispute within the scientific community that humans are changing Earth's climate on a decadal to century time-scale. By the end of this century, without a reduction in emissions, atmospheric CO2 is projected to increase to levels that Earth has not experienced for more than 30 million years. As greenhouse gas emissions propel Earth toward a warmer climate state, an improved understanding of climate dynamics in warm environments is needed to inform public policy decisions. In Understanding Earth's Deep Past, the National Research Council reports that rocks and sediments that are millions of years old hold clues to how the Earth's future climate would respond in an environment with high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Understanding Earth's Deep Past provides an assessment of both the demonstrated and underdeveloped potential of the deep-time geologic record to inform us about the dynamics of the global climate system. The report describes past climate changes, and discusses potential impacts of high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases on regional climates, water resources, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the cycling of life-sustaining elements. While revealing gaps in scientific knowledge of past climate states, the report highlights a range of high priority research issues with potential for major advances in the scientific understanding of climate processes. This proposed integrated, deep-time climate research program would study how climate responded over Earth's different climate states, examine how climate responds to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and clarify the processes that lead to anomalously warm polar and tropical regions and the impact on marine and terrestrial life. In addition to outlining a research agenda, Understanding Earth's Deep Past proposes an implementation strategy that will be an invaluable resource to decision-makers in the field, as well as the research community, advocacy organizations, government agencies, and college professors and students. (National Academies Press website 5/16/2011).
Download or read book Polar Environments and Global Change written by Roger G. Barry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric processes, present and past conditions, and changes in polar environments.
Download or read book Nonlinear and Stochastic Climate Dynamics written by Christian L. E. Franzke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now widely recognized that the climate system is governed by nonlinear, multi-scale processes, whereby memory effects and stochastic forcing by fast processes, such as weather and convective systems, can induce regime behavior. Motivated by present difficulties in understanding the climate system and to aid the improvement of numerical weather and climate models, this book gathers contributions from mathematics, physics and climate science to highlight the latest developments and current research questions in nonlinear and stochastic climate dynamics. Leading researchers discuss some of the most challenging and exciting areas of research in the mathematical geosciences, such as the theory of tipping points and of extreme events including spatial extremes, climate networks, data assimilation and dynamical systems. This book provides graduate students and researchers with a broad overview of the physical climate system and introduces powerful data analysis and modeling methods for climate scientists and applied mathematicians.
Download or read book Ecology of Climate Change written by Eric Post and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-11 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising temperatures are affecting organisms in all of Earth's biomes, but the complexity of ecological responses to climate change has hampered the development of a conceptually unified treatment of them. In a remarkably comprehensive synthesis, this book presents past, ongoing, and future ecological responses to climate change in the context of two simplifying hypotheses, facilitation and interference, arguing that biotic interactions may be the primary driver of ecological responses to climate change across all levels of biological organization. Eric Post's synthesis and analyses of ecological consequences of climate change extend from the Late Pleistocene to the present, and through the next century of projected warming. His investigation is grounded in classic themes of enduring interest in ecology, but developed around novel conceptual and mathematical models of observed and predicted dynamics. Using stability theory as a recurring theme, Post argues that the magnitude of climatic variability may be just as important as the magnitude and direction of change in determining whether populations, communities, and species persist. He urges a more refined consideration of species interactions, emphasizing important distinctions between lateral and vertical interactions and their disparate roles in shaping responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to climate change.
Download or read book Arctic Landscape Dynamics written by Louise M. Farquharson and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arctic Cryosphere (AC) is sensitive to rapid climate changes. The response of glaciers, sea ice, and permafrost-influenced landscapes to warming is complicated by polar amplification of global climate change which is caused by the presence of thresholds in the physics of energy exchange occurring around the freezing point of water. To better understand how the AC has and will respond to warming climate, we need to understand landscape processes that are operating and interacting across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This dissertation presents three studies from Arctic Alaska that use a combination of field surveys, sedimentology, geochronology and remote sensing to explore various AC responses to climate change in the distant and recent past. The following questions are addressed in this dissertation: 1) How does the AC respond to large scale fluctuations in climate on Pleistocene glacial-interglacial time scales? 2) How do legacy effects relating to Pleistocene landscape dynamics inform us about the vulnerability of modern land systems to current climate warming? and 3) How are coastal systems influenced by permafrost and buffered from wave energy by seasonal sea ice currently responding to ongoing climate change? Chapter 2 uses sedimentology and geochronology to document the extent and timing of ice-sheet glaciation in the Arctic Basin during the penultimate interglacial period. Chapter 3 uses a combination of surficial geology mapping and remote sensing to explore the distribution and vulnerability of modern day landscapes on the North Slope of Alaska to thermokarst caused by rapid warming. Chapter 4 uses high spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing data and field surveys to show how sea ice decline is causing AC coastlines to become more geomorphologically dynamic. Together the results of this research show that the AC is a highly dynamic system that can respond to climate warming in complex and non-linear ways. Chapter 2 provides terrestrial evidence that ice-sheet glaciation occurred offshore in the Arctic Ocean in the later stages of the last interglacial period at a time when lower latitude sections of the Laurentide and Cordilleran were in retreat. These findings have important implications for how Arctic ice sheets respond to increased moisture availability caused by sea ice decline and atmospheric warming. This study also provides a new approach to reconstructing and establishing an absolute chronology for periods of Arctic Ocean glaciation during the mid- to late-Pleistocene. Chapter 3 illustrates how Pleistocene-legacy effects exert important influences over the vulnerability of Arctic lowlands to climate warming. Striking differences are revealed in Holocene thermokarst activity between different surficial geology units. During the Holocene, regions of marine silts have been the most susceptible to thermokarst, while regions of ice-poor aeolian sand have seen the least thermokarst activity. In future decades, areas of ice-rich aeolian silt will be most vulnerable to rapid warming because these areas contain large amounts of ground ice that have so far undergone little thermokarst development during the Holocene. Findings from this study have important implications for understanding future landscape evolution and carbon cycling in the Arctic. Chapter 4 shows that permafrost coastlines in the Kotzebue Sound region are already responding to ongoing climate change. Remote sensing data demonstrates that declines in the extent and timing of sea ice are causing an increasingly dynamic coastal system. Rates of change along the coast are more dynamic now than at any time during the past 64 years, and these geomorphic responses to sea ice decline are non-linear. Furthermore, future coastal change will not necessarily be characterized by higher erosion rates, because accretion rates are simultaneously rising. In general, the research described in this dissertation illustrates that the future response of AC components to ongoing climate change will be complex and nonlinear. These results serve to emphasize the value of using past responses of the AC to better understand its possible future trajectories. They also highlight the importance of taking into account a wide variety of processes operating across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales to refine future projected changes.
Download or read book Dynamical Paleoclimatology written by Barry Saltzman and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the ideas and creates a framework for building toward a theory of paleoclimate. Using the rich and mounting array of observational evidence of climatic changes from geology, geochemistry, and paleontology, Saltzman offers a dynamical approach to the theory of paleoclimate evolution and an expanded theory of climate. Saltzman was a distinquished authority on dynamical meteorology. This book provides a comprehensive framework based on dynamical system ideas for a theory of climate and paleoclimatic evolution which is intended for graduate students and research workers in paleoclimatology, earth system studies, and global change research. The book includes an extensive bibliography of geological and physical/dynamical references. Written by the late Barry Saltzman who was a distinquished authority on dynamical meteorology This book provides a comprehensive framework based on dynamical system ideas for a theory of climate and paleoclimatic evolution The book includes extensive bibliography of geological and physical/dynamical references
Download or read book Climate System Dynamics and Modelling written by Hugues Goosse and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-10 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook presents all aspects of climate system dynamics, on all timescales from the Earth's formation to modern human-induced climate change. It discusses the dominant feedbacks and interactions between all the components of the climate system: atmosphere, ocean, land surface and ice sheets. It addresses one of the key challenges for a course on the climate system: students can come from a range of backgrounds. A glossary of key terms is provided for students with little background in the climate sciences, whilst instructors and students with more expertise will appreciate the book's modular nature. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter for readers to test their understanding. This textbook will be invaluable for any course on climate system dynamics and modeling, and will also be useful for scientists and professionals from other disciplines who want a clear introduction to the topic.
Download or read book Early Middle Pleistocene Transitions written by Geological Society of London and published by Geological Society of London. This book was released on 2005 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition (around 1.2 to 0.5 Ma) marks a profound shift in Earth's climate state. Low-amplitude 41 ka climate cycles, dominating the earlier part of the Pleistocene, gave way progressively to a 100 ka rhythm of increased amplitude that characterizes our present glacial-interglacial world. This volume assesses the biotic and physical response to this transition both on land and in the oceans: indeed it examines the very nature of Quaternary climate change. Milankovitch theory, palaeoceanography using isotopes and microfossils, marine organic geochemistry, tephrochronology, the record of loess and soil deposition, terrestrial vegetational change, and the migration and evolution of hominins as well as other large and small mammals, are all considered. These themes combine to explore the very origins of our present biota.
