Tectonics and climate

Tectonics and climate are both directly and indirectly related. The direct connection is between uplift, atmospheric circulation, and the hydrologic cycle. The indirect links are via subduction, volcanism, the introduction of gasses into the atmosphere, and through erosion and consumption of atmospheric gases by chemical weathering. Rifting of continental blocks involves broad upwarping followed by subsidence of a central valley and uplift of marginal shoulders. The result is an evolving regional climate which has been repeated many times in the Phanerozoic: first a vapor-trapping arch, followed by a rift valley with fresh-water lakes, culminating in an arid rift bordered by mountains intercepting incoming precipitation. Convergence tectonics affects climate on a larger scale. A mountain range is a barrier to atmospheric circulation, especially if perpendicular to the circulation. It also traps water vapor converting latent to sensible heat. Broad uplift results in a shorter path for both incoming and outgoing radiation resulting in seasonal climate extremes with reversals of atmospheric pressure and enhanced monsoonal circulation. Volcanism affects climate by introducing ash and aerosols into the atmosphere, but unless these are injected into the stratosphere, they have little effect. Stratospheric injection is most likely to occur at high latitudes, where the thickness of the troposphere is minimal. Volcanoes introduce CO₂, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Geochemical effects of tectonic uplift and unroofing relate to the weathering of silicate rocks, the means by which CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere-ocean system on long-term time scales.     

Orbital changes and climate

At the 41,000-period of orbital tilt, summer insolation forces a lagged response in northern ice sheets. This delayed ice signal is rapidly transferred to nearby northern oceans and landmasses by atmospheric dynamics. These ice-driven responses lead to late-phased changes in atmospheric CO₂ that provide positive feedback to the ice sheets and also project ‘late’ 41-K forcing across the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere. Responses in austral regions are also influenced by a fast response to summer insolation forcing at high southern latitudes.At the 22,000-year precession period, northern summer insolation again forces a lagged ice-sheet response, but with muted transfers to proximal regions and no subsequent effect on atmospheric CO₂. Most 22,000-year greenhouse-gas responses have the ‘early’ phase of July insolation. July forcing of monsoonal and boreal wetlands explains the early CH₄ response. The slightly later 22-K CO₂ response originates in the southern hemisphere. The early 22-K CH₄ and CO₂ responses add to insolation forcing of the ice sheets.The dominant 100,000-year response of ice sheets is not externally forced, nor does it result from internal resonance. Internal forcing appears to play at most a minor role. The origin of this signal lies mainly in internal feedbacks (CO₂ and ice albedo) that drive the gradual build-up of large ice sheets and then their rapid destruction. Ice melting during terminations is initiated by uniquely coincident forcing from insolation and greenhouse gases at the periods of tilt and precession.     

Coastal megacities and climate change

Rapid urbanization is projected to produce 20 coastal megacities (population exceeding 8 million) by 2010. This is mainly a developing world phenomenon: in 1990, there were seven coastal megacities in Asia (excluding those in Japan) and two in South America, rising by 2010 to 12 in Asia (including Istanbul), three in South America and one in Africa.All coastal locations, including megacities, are at risk to the impacts of accelerated global sea-level rise and other coastal implications of climate change, such as changing storm frequency. Further, many of the coastal megacities are built on geologically young sedimentary strata that are prone to subsidence given excessive groundwater withdrawal. At least eight of the projected 20 coastal megacities have experienced a local orrelative rise in sea level which often greatly exceeds any likely global sea-level rise scenario for the next century.The implications of climate change for each coastal megacity vary significantly, so each city requires independent assessment. In contrast to historical precedent, a proactive perspective towards coastal hazards and changing levels of risk with time is recommended. Low-cost measures to maintain or increase future flexibility of response to climate change need to be identified and implemented as part of an integrated approach to coastal management.     

Earth dynamics and climate changes

The evolution of the Earth's climate over geological time is now relatively well known. Conversely, the causes and feedback mechanisms involved in these climatic changes are still not well determined. At geological timescales, two factors play a prevailing role: plate tectonics and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Their climatic effects will be examined using palaeoclimatic indicators as well as results of climate models. I focus primarily on the influence of continental drift on warm and cold climatic episodes. The consequences of peculiar land sea distributions (amalgamation/dispersal of continental blocks) are discussed. Plate tectonics also drive sea level changes as well as mountain uplift. Marine transgressions during the Mid-Cretaceous favoured warmth within the interiors of continents, although their effect could be very different according to the season. Mountain uplift is also an important factor, which is able to alter climate at large spatial scales. Experiments relative to climatic sensitivity to the elevation of the Appalachians during the Late Permian are discussed. To affect the whole Earth, the chemical composition of the atmosphere appears to be a more efficient forcing factor. The carbon dioxide driven by the long-term carbon cycle has influenced the global climate. Geochemical modelling simulates more or less accurately the long-term evolution of pCO₂, which corresponds roughly to the icehouse/greenhouse climatic oscillations. However, the uncertainties on pCO₂ are still important because different parameters involved in the long-term carbon cycle (degassing rate, chemical weathering of silicates, burial of organic matter) are not well constrained throughout the past. The chemical composition of the atmosphere is also altered by the emissions of modern volcanic eruptions leading to weak global cooling. The influence of large flood basalt provinces on climate is not yet known well enough; this volcanism may have released huge amounts of SO₂ as well as CO₂. At last, the chemical composition of the atmosphere may have been altered by the release of methane in response to the dissociation of gas hydrates. This scenario has been proposed to explain the abrupt warming during the Late Palaeocene.     

The Preboreal climate reversal and a subsequent solar‐forced climate shift

Accurate chronologies are essential for linking palaeoclimate archives. Carbon‐14 wiggle‐match dating was used to produce an accurate chronology for part of an early Holocene peat sequence from the Borchert (The Netherlands). Following the Younger Dryas–Preboreal transition, two climatic shifts could be inferred. Around 11 400 cal. yr BP the expansion of birch (Betula) forest was interrupted by a dry continental phase with dominantly open grassland vegetation, coeval with the PBO (Preboreal Oscillation), as observed in the GRIP ice core. At 11 250 cal. yr BP a sudden shift to a humid climate occurred. This second change appears to be contemporaneous with: (i) a sharp increase of atmospheric ¹⁴C; (ii) a temporary decline of atmospheric CO₂; and (iii) an increase in the GRIP ¹⁰Be flux. The close correspondence with excursions of cosmogenic nuclides points to a decline in solar activity, which may have forced the changes in climate and vegetation at around 11 250 cal. yr BP. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expected impacts of climate change on extreme climate events

An overview of the expected change of climate extremes during this century due to greenhouse gases and aerosol anthropogenic emissions is presented. The most commonly used methodologies rely on the dynamical or statistical downscaling of climate projections, performed with coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models. Either of dynamical or of statistical type, downscaling methods present strengths and weaknesses, but neither their validation on present climate conditions, nor their potential ability to project the impact of climate change on extreme event statistics allows one to give a specific advantage to one of the two types. The results synthesized in the last IPCC report and more recent studies underline a convergence for a very likely increase in heat wave episodes over land surfaces, linked to the mean warming and the increase in temperature variability. In addition, the number of days of frost should decrease and the growing season length should increase. The projected increase in heavy precipitation events appears also as very likely over most areas and also seems linked to a change in the shape of the precipitation intensity distribution. The global trends for drought duration are less consistent between models and downscaling methodologies, due to their regional variability. The change of wind-related extremes is also regionally dependent, and associated to a poleward displacement of the midlatitude storm tracks. The specific study of extreme events over France reveals the high sensitivity of some statistics of climate extremes at the decadal time scale as a consequence of regional climate internal variability.     

The climate attractor

Time series of proxy data representing long-term variation of the terrestrial climate presumably show aperiodic changes, which has given rise to the hypothesis that the dynamics of the earth’s climate is governed by a strange attractor. Here a study of such attractors is presented, with emphasis on determination of its dimension and the reported results. Finally, a one dimensional delayed albedo feedback climate model is discussed with the related strange attractor and its dimension.     

Global climate change and human health

Predicted changes in temperature during the next century and the possibility of substantial depletion of stratospheric ozone would represent an unprecedently rapid change in the global environment with enormous effects including important impacts on human health. These are likely to be most obvious in the Third World where some areas can expect an intensification of existing major health hazards: an increased frequency of floods and storms; changes to the availability of food and good quality domestic water supplies and climate-related changes in the ecology of insect vectors for diseases such as malaria. In developed countries significant impacts can also be anticipated. More frequent episodes of hot weather could be associated with more food poisoning and with increases in deaths from circulatory diseases. These might be offset by lower mortality rates in warmer winters. Exposure to photochemical atmospheric pollution is likely to increase. Stratospheric ozone depletion together with more exposure to sun in warmer weather could accelerate the existing rise in the incidence of skin cancer and increase the risk of cataracts.     

Global climate change and human health

Predicted changes in temperature during the next century and the possibility of substantial depletion of stratospheric ozone would represent an unprecedently rapid change in the global environment with enormous effects including important impacts on human health. These are likely to be most obvious in the Third World where some areas can expect an intencification of existing major health hazards: an increased frequency of floods and storms; changes to the availability of food and good quality domestic water supplies and climate-related changes in the ecology of insect vectors for diseases such as malaria. In developed countries significant impacts can be also be anticipated. More frequent episodes of hot weather could be associated with more food poisoning and with increases in deaths from circulatory diseases. These might be offset by lower mortality rates in warmer winters. Exposure to photochemical atmospheric pollution is likely to increase. Stratospheric ozone depletion together with more exposure to sun in warmer weather could accelerate the existing rise in the incidence of skin cancer and increase the risk of cataracts.     

全球气候变化及其影响

全球气候变化及其对社会与自然系统产生的影响已日益受到全世界各国政府与广大民众的关注。与天气和气候有关的灾害给人类生命财产造成的损失日益增大,社会与生态系统似乎变得日趋脆弱。人们关心刚刚过去的20世纪的天气与气候发生了什么变化,更希望了解未来的21世纪,人类居住的地球会出现什么样的气候情景。根据一些国家和地区的观测记录、研究成果以及科学家们对气候变化的评估与预测展望,对全球气候变化问题进行概括。首先阐明20世纪地区性气候变化的事实;并根据政府间气候变化委员会(IPCC)科学技术报告中关于20世纪全球气候变化进行的总结性评估以及对21世纪全球气候变化的预测,作为阐述过去与未来全球气候变化的主要依据。同时,还介绍了一些科学家对IPCC关于全球气候变化的结论所持的不同观点或质疑。还就气候变化对社会与自然系统可能产生的影响略作论述。     

The nature of climate and climatic variations

The climate system consists of the atmosphere, the oceans, the cryosphere (land ice, snow, sea ice), the lithosphere, and the biomass. The behavior of the individual components of the system is governed by processes occurring over a broad range of time and space scales. The components are coupled by physical, biological, and chemical processes, and the coupled system seems capable of undergoing fluctuations on all time scales. In addition to these “internal” climatic processes, external processes (such as variability in the solar irradiance or human activities) must also be considered. Space and time scales of climatic variability are reviewed, with emphasis on the Holocene. Regional patterns of climatic variability may be associated with changes in the amplitude and longitudinal position of the long waves in the westerlies of midlatitudes, and with changes in the intensity and latitude of meridional circulation features such as the Hadley cell. Possible examples of this are mentioned. The variance spectrum of climatic time series is described and certain implications for climate modeling are suggested.     

白垩纪“温室”气候与海洋

白垩纪典型的"温室"气候和海洋一直是地学界关注的焦点之一.与现今地球"冰室"状态相比,温室状态下的气候和海洋遵循着不同的运行模式.本文在近年来取得的大量同位素、古生物以及气候和海洋模拟实验数据的基础上,评述了白垩纪古气候和古海洋研究中取得的重要进展.化石氧同位素数据揭示白垩纪全球平均气温比现今高3～10℃,海洋纬向温度梯度仅0.15～0.3℃/1°,全球海洋结构和大洋环流可能与现今完全不同,大洋环流的驱动很可能是盐度变化而不是温度差异.白垩纪深水沉积显示出从早白垩世碳酸盐台地相、含黑色页岩夹层、黑色页岩和大洋红层大规模出现一直到晚白垩世整体以大洋红层为主的转变.对该沉积转变机制及其与古海洋、古气候关系的研究正是IGCP463/494的主要科学目标.     

Fingerprinting the 8.2 ka event climate response in a coupled climate model

Using results from coupled climate model simulations of the 8.2 ka climate event that produced a cold period over Greenland in agreement with the reconstructed cooling from ice cores, we investigate the typical pattern of climate anomalies (fingerprint) to provide a framework for the interpretation of global proxy data for the 8.2 ka climate event. For this purpose we developed an analysis method that isolates the forced temperature response and provides information on spatial variations in magnitude, timing and duration that characterise the detectable climate event in proxy archives. Our analysis shows that delays in the temperature response to the freshwater forcing are present, mostly in the order of decades (30 a over central Greenland). The North Atlantic Ocean initially cools in response to the freshwater perturbation, followed in certain parts by a warm response. This delay, occurring more than 200 a after the freshwater pulse, hints at an overshoot in the recovery from the freshwater perturbation. The South Atlantic and the Southern Ocean show a warm response reflecting the bipolar seesaw effect. The duration of the simulated event varies for different areas, and the highest probability of recording the event in proxy archives is in the North Atlantic Ocean area north of 40° N. Our results may facilitate the interpretation of proxy archives recording the 8.2 ka event, as they show that timing and duration cannot be assumed to correspond with the timing and duration of the event as recorded in Greenland ice cores. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rivers, chemical weathering and Earth's climate

We detail the results of recent studies describing and quantifying the large-scale chemical weathering of the main types of continental silicate rocks: granites and basalts. These studies aim at establishing chemical weathering laws for these two lithologies, describing the dependence of chemical weathering on environmental parameters, such as climate and mechanical erosion. As shown within this contribution, such mathematical laws are of primary importance for numerical models calculating the evolution of the partial pressure of atmospheric CO₂ and the Earth climate at geological timescales. The major results can be summarized as follow: (1) weathering of continental basaltic lithologies accounts for about 30% of the total consumption of atmospheric CO₂ through weathering of continental silicate rocks. This is related to their high weatherability (about eight times greater than the granite weatherability); (2) a simple weathering law has been established for basaltic lithologies, giving the consumption of atmospheric CO₂ as a function of regional continental runoff, and mean annual regional temperature; (3) no such simple weathering law can be proposed for granitic lithologies, since the effect of temperature can only be identified for regions displaying high continental runoff; (4) a general law relating mechanical erosion and chemical weathering has been validated on small and large catchments. The consequences of these major advances on the climatic evolution of the Earth are discussed. Particularly, the impacts of the onset of the Deccan trapps and the Himalayan orogeny on the global carbon cycle are reinvestigated. To cite this article: B. Dupré et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

Effects of deforestation and afforestation on climate

Forests cover 29% of the continents. Their importance for mankind is not only due to wood production but also by their manyfold influences on the biosphere. The properties of forest stands influence climate, water balance, air constituents and the dynamic of atmosphere. The welfare functions of forests can be observed in the global as well as in the local or microscale. Anthropogenic measures, as deforestation and air pollution, endanger the forests and by that one of the main pillars of nature on earth.     

Man and climate in the Maya lowlands

A 15-m sedimentary core from Lake Salpeten provides the first complete Holocene sequence for the lowlying Peten District, Guatemala. Today, Lake Salpeten is a brackish, calcium sulfate lake near saturation surrounded by tropical semievergreen forest. The basal pollen record depicts sparse juniper scrub surrounding a lake basin that held ephermal pools and halophytic marshes. The lake rapidly deepened to > 27 m in the early Holocene and may have been meromictic, because nearly 2 m of gypsum “mush” was deposited. Mesic forests were quickly established and persisted until the Maya entered the district 3000 yr ago and caused extensive deforestation. Any climatic information contained in the pollen record of the Maya period is thus masked, but a regional pollen sequence linked to the archaeological record is substantiated because environmental disturbance was pervasive. Local intensification of occupation and population growth are seen as an increased deposition of pollen of agricultural weeds and colluviation into the lake, while the Classic Maya collapse is marked by a temporary decline in Compositae pollen. Effects of perturbations induced by the Maya persist in the pollen and limnetic record 400 yr after the Spanish conquest.     

Effects of deforestation and afforestation on climate

Forests cover 29% of the continents. Their importance for mankind is not only due to wood production but also by their manyfold influences on the biosphere. The properties of forest stands influence climate, water balance, air constituents and the dynamic of atmosphere. The welfare functions of forests can be observed in the global as well as in the local or microscale. Anthropogenic measures, as deforestation and air pollution, endanger the forests and by that one of the main pillars of nature on earth.