The Southern Margin of the Late Cainozoic Ice Cap on the Central Plateau of Tasmania

The easternmost extremity of the ice cap that developed in the Tasmanian Central Highlands during the time of most extensive Late Cainozoic glaciation lay on the doleritecapped Central Plateau east and north-east of Lake St Clair. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the more restricted ice cover included a small discrete ice cap (probably less than 250-300 m thick) that formed on the Central Plateau. The LGM ice limits on the southern part of the Central Plateau, including all five southern outlet valleys, are reported here. Earlier ice limits have been identified in two of these valleys, but on the plateau proper earlier glacial deposits have been generally extensively reworked beyond the LGM limit, such that confirmation of a glacial origin for diamictons on slopes is difficult. South of the plateau, the oldest deposits flooring lower reaches of two outlet valleys indicate that ice flowed southwards directly from the plateau, but later deposits indicate diffluent flow from the Derwent Glacier.     

ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOODS AND URBAN REVITALIZATION: CAN EUROPE USE THE AMERICAN MODEL?

ABSTRACT. Ethnic neighborhoods have long been used to facilitate urban revitalization in older, inner‐city neighborhoods in American cities, but this strategy is much less common in European cities. This is especially surprising because immigrants make up a significant percentage of the population in a large number of those cities. This article explores the role that a largely invented Little Italy has played in revitalizing a section of downtown San Diego in contrast to the difficulty of creating such districts in European cities. The question posed here is, Will this contrast in approaches and outcomes remain indefinitely, or will the use of ethnically themed revitalization strategies become more alike as globalization and the expansion of the European Union serve to lessen historic ethnic tensions and increase the number of distinctive immigrant districts in Europe?     

GLACIAL GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS,CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA: ESTABLISHMENT OF A GLACIAL CHRONOLOGY

The White Mountains, astride the California-Nevada stateline, are the highest and westernmost of the Great Basin ranges. This range was extensively glaciated during the Quaternary Period. Glacial landforms and scattered erratics were identified in the field using primarily morpho-and lithostratigraphic criteria, and mapped on aerial photographs and topographic maps. Topographic characteristics of the glacial deposits were analyzed using standard statistical procedures. A sequence of glacial deposits was identified in terms of six glacial stages, these glaciations named according to type site, and relative ages inferred. With the exception of perched Stage I (early) deposits along the range crest, reconstructed equilibrium-line altitudes and elevation of the glacier termini increase to the present, with glacier length and inferred size decreasing through time. Preliminary data suggest that weathering and pedogenesis are also progressive, though environmental gradients mask some of these distinctions between deposits. It is hypothesized that the White Mountains have a similar glacial chronology to the adjacent Sierra Nevada, but that with the intensification of the Sierran rainshadow during the Quaternary, the extent of glaciation in the White Mountains apparently decreased through time owing to regional tectonic uplift. This had led to the preservation of a more complete sequence of glacial deposits than in the Sierra Nevada, making the delineation of multiple mid-Quaternary events possible in many valleys. Further radiometric and chronometric dating of these deposits is in progress. [Key words: Glaciation, Quaternary, glacial geomorphology, White Mountains, California, Nevada.     

Mapping Ecotone Movements: Holocene Dynamics of the Forest Tension Zone in Central Lower Michigan,Usa

This paper presents a novel method for detecting and mapping movements of ecotone boundaries, over both time and space, using existing fossil pollen data. The method combines existing statistical techniques, including discriminant analysis and spatial interpolation, to generate statistically robust maps of ecotone boundaries over time. This method was applied to provide a comprehensive vegetative history of the forest tension zone in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan during the last 10,000 years. Pollen data for nine lakes in the Lower Peninsula were analyzed with discriminant analysis and spatially interpolated with inverse distance weighted to track ecotone movements of the forest tension zone. The forest tension zone has been in existence over the last 10,000 years and has been highly variable over space and time, with at least three major latitudinal shifts, spanning 320 km and 6° of latitude, as well as several less pronounced shifts. These shifts occurred primarily in response to millennial-scale oscillations in climate such as the warmer and dryer conditions associated with the mid-Holocene. A slighter shift was evident in association with the cooler and drier conditions of the Little Ice Age (600-100 cal yr BP). This research demonstrates the sensitivity of Great Lakes forest communities to Holocene climate change and suggests a similar sensitivity of future ecotone dynamics in response to modern global warming.     

小冰期福建海岸沙丘的沉积环境

选取福建东南沿海典型海岸沙丘——东海沙丘,运用GPR（Ground Penetrating Radar）技术探测海岸沙丘内部构造,辅助天然剖面和人工探槽观测,进行系统的年代采样与OSL（Optically Stimulated Luminescence）测年,并选择物理意义明确的粒度参数作为主要环境代用指标,获得了亚热带季风区砂质海岸带典型海岸沙丘的沉积年代和沉积结构。结果表明：（1）东海沙丘是由若干灌丛沙丘组成的横向沙丘,0～6 m主要是～0.45 ka BP以来形成的海岸风成沙丘,可以划分为～0.45 ka BP和0.22～0.12 ka BP两个阶段。（2）东海沙丘沉积过程是多因素共同作用的结果,冷干的气候环境是沙丘发育的适宜条件,入境台风频率增加可能加快了风沙的沉积过程。对比历史文献资料发现,气候异常期往往与社会动荡期、重要历史事件相对应。     

A Simple Model Of The Convective Internal Boundary Layer And Its Application To Surface Heat Flux Estimates Within Polynyas

A simple model of the convective (thermal) internalboundary layer has been developed for climatologicalstudies of air-sea-ice interaction, where in situobservations are scarce and first-order estimates ofsurface heat fluxes are required. It is amixed-layer slab model, based on a steady-statesolution of the conservation of potentialtemperature equation, assuming a balance betweenadvection and turbulent heat-flux convergence. Boththe potential temperature and the surface heat fluxare allowed to vary with fetch, so the subsequentboundary-layer modification alters the fluxconvergence and thus the boundary-layer growth rate.For simplicity, microphysical and radiativeprocesses are neglected.The model is validated using several case studies.For a clear-sky cold-air outbreak over a coastalpolynya the observed boundary-layer heights,mixed-layer potential temperatures and surface heatfluxes are all well reproduced. In other cases,where clouds are present, the model still capturesmost of the observed boundary-layer modification,although there are increasing discrepancies withfetch, due to the neglected microphysical andradiative processes. The application of the model toclimatological studies of air-sea interaction withincoastal polynyas is discussed.     

七月大气环流对南极海冰异常的响应

本文用一个全球大气九层谱模式，模拟了七月份南极两个不同海区海冰区异常对大气环流的影响。主要讨论了大气环流对南极海冰异常存在的局地性的及全球性的响应。细致分析了二个区域极冰异常导致的南北半球低频波列分布的差异，以及它们对热带区域及亚洲季风区降水、越赤道气流的不同影响。最后则依据我们的模拟结果，讨论了南极海冰异常影响全球大气环流的动力学机制。     

中国小冰期气候研究综述

通过对小冰期研究文献进行综述,并对已发表的小冰期温度和降水数据进行综合对比分析,探讨小冰期时期中国气候特征的区域性.结果表明,小冰期在中国地区不同区域代用指标记录中均存在,但是小冰期的起讫及持续时间具有区域差异性,温湿配置也不尽相同.小冰期的起始时间主要呈现出由西向东推移的趋势,即青藏高原最早,华北地区次之而东部地区最晚.温湿配置的差异主要体现在东部季风区小冰期时期总体上是冷干的气候环境,而西部地区气候变化则呈现冷湿的气候特征.     

Stained Glass and Climate Change: How are they Connected?

As expressions of regional architecture, sacred (Christian) Gothic structures often possess several adaptations to their prevailing climate regime. The late medieval (Gothic) period in northern Europe is also, according to the evidence presented here, marked by a transition from warm and sunny to cooler and cloudier conditions. It is within the context of this climate change that we consider one of the most important features in Gothic churches—interior daylighting—during the transitional period (the thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth centuries) between the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). This paper seeks to determine whether increasingly cloudy conditions over northern continental Europe, in part due to a shift in North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phase, may have influenced the use of more white glass in the fourteenth century. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an extensive daylighting dataset has been collected in medieval sacred interiors. From an analysis of these illuminance and luminance data collected in European churches and cathedrals, we find that high-translucency glazing is associated with limited lighting gains compared to full-colour programs under sunny conditions but substantial lighting improvements (up to an order of magnitude) for cloudy conditions. Additionally, we find that backlighting from direct sunlight produces significant obscuration of some of the iconographical glass when interiors are dominated by high-translucency glazing, further suggesting that these interiors are not ideal for sunny conditions.

[Traduit par la rédaction] Étant donné que les cathédrales gothiques (chrétiennes) sont des expressions de l'architecture régionale, plusieurs adaptations au climat de l’époque y ont souvent été apportées. À la fin du Moyen Âge (période du gothique), le climat chaud et ensoleillé en Europe du nord continentale a fait place à un climat plus froid et plus nuageux, d'après les preuves que nous présentons ici. C'est donc dans la perspective de ce changement climatique que nous nous penchons sur l'un des éléments les plus importants de l'architecture des églises gothique, l’éclairage naturel intérieur, durant la transition (du XIII^e siècle à la fin du XV^e siècle) entre la période chaude médiévale (MWP) et le petit âge glaciaire (LIA). Dans le présent article, nous voulons notamment évaluer si l'utilisation de plus en plus fréquente du vitrail blanc au XIV^e siècle s'expliquerait par les conditions plus nuageuses en Europe du nord continentale, attribuables en partie à un changement dans l'indice d‘oscillation nord-atlantique (NAO). À notre connaissance, c'est la première fois qu'une série élaborée de données a été recueillie sur l’éclairage à l'intérieur des cathédrales gothiques. L'analyse des données sur l’éclairement lumineux et la luminance lumineuse dans les églises et les cathédrales d'Europe nous permet de constater que le verre très translucide présente peu d'avantages comparativement au verre plein coloré dans des conditions ensoleillées, mais qu'il améliore considérablement l’éclairage dans des conditions nuageuses (jusqu’à 10 fois). De plus, nous constatons que l’éclairage en contre-jour produit par l'ensoleillement direct obscurcit une partie des pièces de verre ornées d'icônes lorsque le verre très translucide domine à l'intérieur, ce qui confirme une fois de plus qu'il ne s'agit pas d'un aménagement idéal pour les conditions ensoleillées.     

Climate and material controls on periglacial soil processes: Toward improving periglacial climate indicators

One of the distinguished efforts of A.L. Washburn was to reconstruct mean annual air temperature using periglacial features as climate indicators. This paper reviews existing periglacial indicators and proposes a strategy to improve their thermal resolution based on recent periglacial process studies, with a focus on solifluction and thermal contraction cracking and associated landforms/structures. Landforms resulting from solifluction reflect both the depth subjected to freeze-thaw and the thickness of frost-susceptible soils. The thickness of a solifluction structure can be used to infer the dominant freeze-thaw regime and minimum seasonal frost depth. Ice-wedge pseudomorphs have limited potential as a climate indicator because (1) they mainly reflect extreme winter temperatures, (2) their thermal thresholds depend on the host material, and (3) they need to be distinguished from frost wedges of other origin produced under different thermal and/or material conditions. Monitoring studies of currently active ice wedges suggest that ice-wedge cracking requires a combination of low temperature and large temperature gradients in the frozen active layer. Further field monitoring of periglacial processes and their controlling factors under various climate conditions and in various materials are needed, however, to improve the resolution of periglacial paleoclimate indicators.