Warm Climates in Earth History

Cambridge University Press, 12/2/1999
EAN 9780521641425, ISBN10: 052164142X

Hardcover, 480 pages, 25.4 x 18 x 2.8 cm
Language: English

The geologic record contains evidence of greenhouse climates in the earth's past, and by studying these past conditions, we can gain greater understanding of the forcing mechanisms and feedbacks that influence today's climate. Leading experts in paleoclimatology combine in one integrated volume new and state-of-the-art paleontological, geological, and theoretical studies to assess intervals of global warmth. The book reviews what is known about the causes and consequences of globally warm climates, demonstrates current directions of research on warm climates, and outlines the central problems that remain unresolved. The chapters present new research on a number of different warm climate intervals from the early Paleozoic to the early Cenozoic. The book will be of great interest to researchers in paleoclimatology, and it will also be useful as a supplementary text on advanced undergraduate or graduate level courses in paleoclimatology and earth science.

Preface Brian T. Huber, Kenneth G. MacLeod, Scott L. Wing
Part I. Approaches to the Study of Paleoclimates
1. Warm climate forcing mechanisms Paul J. Valdes
2. Recent advances in paleoclimate modeling
closing the gap on model-data comparisons Robert DeConto, Starley Thompson and Dave Pollard
3. Comparisons of zonal temperature profiles for past warm time periods Tom Crowley and Jim C. Zachos
Part II. Case Studies
Latest Paleocene-Early Eocene
4. High resolution global ocean circulation Karen Bice, Lisa Sloan and Eric Barron
5. Deep-sea environments in the absence of polar ice caps
the case of the early Eocene Ellen Thomas and Jim C. Zachos
6. Mountains and Eocene climate Richard Norris, Richard Corfield and Karen Hayes-Baker
7. An early Eocene period? Evidence for continental cooling during the warmest part of the Cenozoic Scott Wing, Paul Koch and H. Bao
Part III. Case Studies
Mesoic
8. Paleontological and geochemical constraints on changes in the deep ocean during the Cretaceous greenhouse interval Kenneth G. MacLeod, Brian T. Huber and My Le Ducharme
9. Late Cretaceous climate, vegetation and ocean interactions Robert DeConto, Esther C. Brady, Jon Bergengren, Starley Thompson, David Pollard and William Hay
10. Jurassic phytogeography and climates
new data and model comparisons Alistair Rees, Alfred M. Ziegler and Paul J. Valdes
Part IV. Case studies
Paleozoic
11. Permian and Triassic high latitude paleoclimates
evidence from fossil biotas Edith Taylor, Thomas Taylor and N. Rubén Cúneo
12. Organic carbon burial and faunal dynamics in the Appalachian basin during the Devonian (Givetian-Famennian) greenhouse
an integrated Paleoecological/biogeochemical approach Adam Murphy, Bradley B. Sageman and Charles Ver Straeten
13. Glaciation in the early Paleozoic 'greenhouse'
the roles of paleogeography and atmospheric CO2 Mark Gibbs, Karen Bice, Lee Kump and Eric Barron
Part V. Overview
Climate Across Tectonic Timescales
14. Carbon dioxide and Phanerozoic climate Tom Crowley
Index.

' … climate scientists interested in the basic performance of climate models, and the evolution of the climate over the last 500 million years, will find this volume worth dipping into.' Grant Bigg

'This book is intended as a research text, and certainly, it is a book that no palaeaclimatologist should miss. It contains some excellent overviews of palaeoclimate methods, and some clear explanations of climate models.' Jane Francis, International Journal of Climatology

'This very readable, carefully edited volume is an important contribution to a better understanding of past events that have great consequences for anticipating future environmental change.' Alan Graham, Quarterly Review of Biology