Quaternary environmental change in the tropics / / edited by Sarah E. Metcalfe and David J. Nash

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910141411403321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Hoboken, New Jersey : , : Wiley, , 2012
• ISBN: 9786613905666; 1-283-59321-1; 1-118-33631-3; 1-118-33616-X; 1-118-33617-8
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (450 p.)
• Collana: Blackwell Quaternary Geoscience Series
• Disciplina: 551.6913
• Soggetti: Paleoclimatology - Tropics; Paleoclimatology - Quaternary; Tropics Climate
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Quaternary Environmental Change in the Tropics; Contents; List of contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; I: Global contexts; CHAPTER 1: Introduction; 1.1 Why the tropics matter; 1.1.1 Defining the tropics; 1.1.2 Importance of the tropics; 1.2 Development of ideas; 1.2.1 Early ideas about tropical environmental change; 1.2.2 The twentieth century revolution; 1.2.3 Advances in modelling; 1.3 Establishment of the tropical climate system; 1.4 Drivers of tropical environmental change; 1.5 The tropics as drivers of change; 1.5.1 The tropics and greenhouse gas concentrations; 1.5.2 Impacts of low latitude volcanic eruptions1.5.3 Dust emissions from the tropics and subtropics; 1.6 Extra-tropical forcing; 1.7 Organisation of the volume; Acknowledgements; References; CHAPTER 2: Contemporary climate and circulation of the tropics; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Diurnal and local processes; 2.3 Planetary context; 2.4 Regional circulation systems; 2.4.1 Jet streams; 2.4.2 Subtropical highs and trade winds; 2.4.3 Equatorial trough zone; 2.4.4 Monsoons; 2.4.5 Equatorial zonal circulations; 2.5 Climatic variability; 2.5.1 Southern ; Oscillation and El Nino; 2.5.2 Indian Monsoon; 2.5.3 Northeast Brazil2.5.4 Sahel; 2.5.5 Timescales of variability; 2.6 Concluding remarks; References; II: Regional environmental change; CHAPTER 3: Tropical oceans; 3.1 Tropical oceans in the global climate system; 3.1.1 Modern climatology; 3.1.2 El Nino-Southern Oscillation and its relatives; 3.1.3 Solar and volcanic radiative forcing of tropical oceans; 3.1.4 Tropical oceans and monsoons; 3.1.5 The tropical oceans as part of the global conveyor belt; 3.2 Reconstructing past ocean conditions; 3.2.1 Proxies for SST and SSS; 3.2.2 Reconstructing continental climate using marine archives; 3.3 Tropical oceans throughout the Quaternary3.3.1 Glacial-interglacial cycles; 3.3.2 Early Quaternary (the '41-kyr world'); 3.3.3 Mid-Pleistocene Transition; 3.3.4 Late Quaternary (the '100-kyr world'); 3.4 The past 20 000 years; 3.4.1 The Last Glacial Maximum; 3.4.2 Glacial termination: an active role for the tropics?; 3.4.3 History of the equatorial Pacific and the state of ENSO; 3.4.4 The Holocene; 3.5 Outlook; References; CHAPTER 4: Africa; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Potential climate forcing factors; 4.3 Mediterranean North Africa; 4.3.1 Contemporary climate and sources of palaeoenvironmental information4.3.2 Longer records; 4.3.3 The Last Glacial Maximum; 4.3.4 The last glacial-interglacial transition; 4.3.5 The Holocene; 4.4 The Sahara and the Sahel; 4.4.1 Contemporary climate and sources of palaeoenvironmental information; 4.4.2 Longer records; 4.4.3 The Last Glacial Maximum; 4.4.4 The last glacial-interglacial transition; 4.4.5 The Holocene; 4.5 Equatorial Africa; 4.5.1 Contemporary climate and sources of palaeoenvironmental information; 4.5.2 Longer records; 4.5.3 The Last Glacial Maximum; 4.5.4 The last glacial-interglacial transition
• Sommario/riassunto: 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