Paleoclimates

Understanding Climate Change Past and Present

Auteur: Cronin, Thomas
Éditeur: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231144940
eISBN Pdf: 9780231516365
Lieu de publication: New York , United States
Année de publication électronique: 2009
Mois : Novembre
Langue: Anglais

Légende

The field of paleoclimatology relies on physical, chemical, and biological proxies of past climate changes that have been preserved in natural archives such as glacial ice, tree rings, sediments, corals, and speleothems. Paleoclimate archives obtained through field investigations, ocean sediment coring expeditions, ice sheet coring programs, and other projects allow scientists to reconstruct climate change over much of earth's history.

When combined with computer model simulations, paleoclimatic reconstructions are used to test hypotheses about the causes of climatic change, such as greenhouse gases, solar variability, earth's orbital variations, and hydrological, oceanic, and tectonic processes. This book is a comprehensive, state-of-the art synthesis of paleoclimate research covering all geological timescales, emphasizing topics that shed light on modern trends in the earth's climate. Thomas M. Cronin discusses recent discoveries about past periods of global warmth, changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, abrupt climate and sea-level change, natural temperature variability, and other topics directly relevant to controversies over the causes and impacts of climate change. This text is geared toward advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers in geology, geography, biology, glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric sciences, and climate modeling, fields that contribute to paleoclimatology. This volume can also serve as a reference for those requiring a general background on natural climate variability.

Contents
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1| Paleoclimatology and Modern Challenges
- Introduction
- The Earth’s Climate System
- Causes of Climate Change
- Feedbacks
- Modern Challenges and Paleoclimatology
- Perspective
2| Methods in Paleoclimatology
- Introduction
- Archives of Past Climate Changes
- Geochronology
- Proxies in Paleoclimatology
- Paleoclimate Modeling
- Perspective
3| Deep Time: Climate from 3.8 Billion to 65 Million Years Ago
- Introduction
- Early Earth, Faint Sun Paradox, and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
- Snowball Earth: Neoproterozoic Climate Cycles
- Phanerozoic Climate Change
- Jurassic and Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events and Greenhouse Climate
- Mesozoic Climate and Pole- to- Equator Thermal Gradients
- Perspective
4| Cenozoic Climate
- Introduction
- Cenozoic Paleoclimate Programs and Proxies
- Major Features of Cenozoic Climate
- Mechanisms of Cenozoic Climate Change
- Extreme Climate States
- Perspective
5| Orbital Climate Change
- Introduction
- Astronomical Processes and Calculations
- Historical Development of Orbital Theory
- Paleoclimate Records of Orbital Variability
- Uncertainties, Mysteries, and Paradoxes in Orbital Theory
- Orbital Hypotheses and Mechanisms
- Perspective
6| Glacial Millennial Climate Change
- Introduction
- Meridional Overturning Circulation and Hysteresis
- Chronology for Millennial- Scale Climate
- Dansgaard- Oeschger Events
- Heinrich Events
- Relationship Between Heinrich and Dansgaard-Oeschger Events
- Causes of Glacial-Age Millennial Climate Events
- Perspective
7| Millennial Climate Events During Deglaciation
- Introduction
- Deglacial Terminology and the Last Glacial Maximum
- The Onset of Deglaciation
- Millennial Climate Reversals During Deglaciation
- Mechanisms to Explain Deglacial Climate Changes
- Older Terminations
- Perspective
8| Holocene Climate Variability
- Introduction
- Holocene Paleoclimatology: Terms
- Solar Insolation and Tropical Atmospheric Processes
- Holocene Records of Atmospheric Composition and Circulation
- Ocean Variability and Climate
- Holocene Sea Leveland Ice Volume
- Causes of Holocene Variability
- Perspective
9| Abrupt Climate Events
- Introduction
- Defining Abrupt Climate Change
- Models of Freshwater Forcing of Climate
- Continental Records of Glacial Lake Drainage
- Glacial Geology and Geomorphology Applied to Abrupt Climate
- Glacial Lakes and Abrupt Climate Events
- Paleoceanographic Changes in Marginal Seas
- Abrupt Change During the 8.2- ka Event
- Tropical Forcing of Abrupt Events
- Perspective
10| Internal Modes of Climate Variability
- Introduction
- Indices and Terminology
- Indices and Terminology
- El Niño– Southern Oscillation
- Pacific Decadal and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillations
- Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
- North Atlantic Oscillation and Pacific North American Mode
- Arctic Oscillation
- Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode
- Perspective
11| The Anthropocene I: Global and Hemispheric Temperature
- Introduction
- Before the Anthropocene: The Little Ice Age
- Forcing Agents of Temperature During the Late Holocene
- The Development of Surface Air Temperature Reconstructions
- Limitations to Atmospheric Temperature Reconstructions
- Regional Paleotemperature Reconstructions
- Climate Modeling and Proxy Reconstructions
- Perspective
12| The Anthropocene II: Climatic and Hydrological Change During the Last 2000 Years
- Introduction
- Atmospheric Records of Climate Change
- Oceanic Changes
- Patterns of Internal Climate Variability
- Polar Regions and Sea Ice
- Sea Level, Ice Sheets, and Glaciers
- Perspective
Epilogue
APPENDIX
- Paleoclimate Proxies
References
Index