Summary
Fluvial landforms and deposits provide one of the most readily studied Quaternary continental records, and alluvial strata represent an important component in most ancient continental interior and continental margin successions. Moreover, studies of the long-term dynamics of fluvial systems and their responses to external or ‘allogenic' controls, can play important roles in research concerning both global change and sequence-stratigraphy, as well as in studies of the dynamic interactions between tectonic activity and surface processes. These themes were energized in the final decades of the twentieth century, and may become increasingly important in the first decades of this millennium.

This review paper provides a historical perspective on the development of ideas in the fields of geomorphology/Quaternary geology vs. sedimentary geology, and then summarizes key processes that operate to produce alluvial stratigraphic records over time-scales of 103−106 years. Of particular interest are changes in discharge regimes, sediment supply and sediment storage en route from source terrains to sedimentary basins, as well as changes in sea-level and the concept of accommodation. Late Quaternary stratigraphic records from the Loire (France), Mississippi (USA), Colorado (Texas, USA) and Rhine–Meuse (The Netherlands) Rivers are used to illustrate the influences of climate change on continental interior rivers, as well as the influence of interacting climate and sea-level change on continental margin systems.

The paper concludes with a look forward to a bright future for studies of fluvial response to climate and sea-level change. At present, empirical field-based research on fluvial response to climate and sea-level change lags behind: (a) the global change community's understanding of the magnitude and frequency of climate and sea-level change; (b) the sequence-stratigraphic community's desire to interpret climate and, especially, sea-level change as forcing mechanisms; and (c) the modelling community's ability to generate numerical and physical models of surface processes and their stratigraphic results. A major challenge for the future is to catch up, which will require the development of more detailed and sophisticated Quaternary stratigraphic, sedimentological and geochronological frameworks in a variety of continental interior and continental margin settings. There is a particular need for studies that seek to document fluvial responses to allogenic forcing over both shorter (102−103 years) and longer (104−106 years) time-scales than has commonly been the case to date, as well as in larger river systems, from source to sink. Studies of Quaternary systems in depositional basin settings are especially critical because they can provide realistic analogues for interpretation of the pre-Quaternary rock record.

Fluvial responses to climate and sea‐level change: a review and look forward

accademiche [38]. Ada [45]. Adrian [45]. African [56]. Age [39, 49, 61]. Al [23]. Al-Rawi [23]. Aldous [68]. Alex [15]. Allure [46]. America [60, 66]. American [49, 69, 61, 52]. ancienne [25]. Andreas [28]. Angela [42]. Animals [16]. Ann [26]. Anna [19, 47]. Annotated [46]. Annotations [28]. Anti [37]. Anti-Copernican [37]. Antibiotic [64]. Anxiety [51]. Apocalyptic [61]. Archaeology [26]. Ark [36]. Artisan [32]. Asylum [48]. Atri [54]. Audra [65]. Australia [41]. Authorship [15]. Axelle [29].

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A Complete Bibliography of Publications in Isis, 2000{2009

Many mountain ranges have been strongly glaciated during the Quaternary ice ages, and the locations of glacial refugia of mountain plants have been debated for a long time. A series of detailed molecular studies, investigating intraspecific genetic variation of mountain plants in the European Alps, now allows for a first synopsis. A comparison of the phylogeographic patterns with geological and palaeoenvironmental data demonstrates that glacial refugia were located along the southwestern, southern, eastern and northern border of the Alps. Additional glacial refugia were present in central Alpine areas, where high-elevation plants survived the last glaciation on ice-free mountain tops. The observed intraspecific phylogeographies suggest general patterns of glacial survival, which conform to well-known centres of Alpine species diversity and endemism. This implies that evolutionary or biogeographic processes induced by climatic fluctuations act on gene and species diversity in a similar way.

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Molecular evidence for glacial refugia of mountain plants in the European Alps.

This paper discusses the state of European research in historical climatology. This field of science and an overview of its development are described in detail. Special attention is given to the documentary evidence used for data sources, including its drawbacks and advantages. Further, methods and significant results of historical-climatological research, mainly achieved since 1990, are presented. The main focus concentrates on data, methods, definitions of the "Medieval Warm Period" and the "Little Ice Age", synoptic interpretation of past climates, climatic anomalies and natural disasters, and the vulnerability of economies and societies to climate as well as images and social representations of past weather and climate. The potential of historical climatology for climate modelling research is discussed briefly. Research perspectives in historical climatology are formulated with reference to data, methods, interdisciplinarity and impacts.

/pdf/historical-climatology-in-europe-the-state-of-the-art-2eb7gfbc7z.pdf

Historical Climatology in Europe - the State of the Art

Among the longest astrophysical and astronomical cycles that might influence climate (and even among all forcing mechanisms external to the climatic system itself), only those involving variations in the elements of the Earth's orbit have been found to be significantly related to the long-term climatic data deduced from the geological record. The aim of the astronomical theory of paleoclimates, a particular version of which being due to Milankovitch, is to study this relationship between insolation and climate at the global scale. It comprises four different parts: the orbital elements, the insolation, the climate model, and the geological data. In the nineteenth century, Croll and Pilgrim stressed the importance of severe winters as a cause of ice ages. Later, mainly during the first half of the twentieth century, Koppen, Spitaler, and Milankovitch regarded mild winters and cool summers as favoring glaciation. After Koppen and Wegener related the Milankovitch new radiation curve to Penck and Bruckner's subdivision of the Quaternary, there was a long-lasting debate on whether or not such changes in the insolation can explain the Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles. In the 1970s, with the improvements in dating, in acquiring, and in interpreting the geological data, with the advent of computers, and with the development of astronomical and climate models, the Milankovitch theory revived. Over the last 5 years it overcame most of the geological, astronomical, and climatological difficulties. The accuracy of the long-term variations of the astronomical elements and of the insolation values and the stability of their spectra have been analyzed by comparing seven different astronomical solutions and four different time spans (0–0.8 million years before present (Myr B.P.), 0.8–1.6 Myr B.P., 1.6–2.4 Myr B.P., and 2.4–3.2 Myr B.P.). For accuracy in the time domain, improvements are necessary for periods earlier than 2 Myr B.P. As for the stability of the frequencies, the fundamental periods (around 40, 23, and 19 kyr) do not deteriorate with time over the last 5 Myr, but their relative importance for each insolation and each astronomical parameter is a function of the period considered. Spectral analysis of paleoclimatic records has provided substantial evidence that, at least near the obliquity and precession frequencies, a considerable fraction of the climatic variance is driven in some way by insolation changes forced by changes in the Earth's orbit. Not only are the fundamental astronomical and climatic frequencies alike, but also the climatic series are phase-locked and strongly coherent with orbital variations. Provided that monthly insolation (i.e., a detailed seasonal cycle) is considered for the different latitudes, their long-term deviations can be as large as 13% of the long-term average, and sometimes considerable changes between extreme values can occur in less than 10,000 years. Models of different categories of complexity, from conceptual ones to three-dimensional atmospheric general circulation models and two-dimensional time-dependent models of the whole climate system, have now been astronomically forced in order to test the physical reality of the astronomical theory. The output of most recent modeling efforts compares favorably with data of the past 400,000 years. Accordingly, the model predictions for the next 100,000 years are used as a basis for forecasting how climate would evolve when forced by orbital variations in the absence of anthropogenic disturbance. The long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 5,000 years; this first temperature minimum will be followed by an amelioration at around 15 kyr A.P. (after present), by a cold interval centered at 23 kyr A.P., and by a major glaciation at around 60 kyr A.P.

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Milankovitch Theory and climate

Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter

About the Editors. Acknowledgements. Eduard Bruckner's Ideas - Relevant in His Time and Today N. Stehr, H. von Storch. 1. Groundwater and Typhus. 2. Fluctuations of Water Levels in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and Baltic Sea Relative to Weather. 3. How Constant is Today's Climate. 4. Climate Change since 1700. 5. About the Influence of Snow Cover on the Climate of the Alps. 6. Influence of Climate Variability on Harvest and Grain Prices in Europe. 7. Weather Prophets. 8. An Inquiry about the 35-Year-Period Climatic Variations.

Eduard Brückner

Papers

Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter

Eduard Brückner : the sources and consequences of climate change and climate variability in historical times

Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter : in drei Bänden